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Works of 
C. H. ROBINSON 

LONGHEAD: The Story of 
the First Fire Net $1.00 

HAWK: The Youn^ Osa^e 

$1.25 


L. C. PAGE & COMPANY 
53 Beacon Street, Boston, Mass. 




HE SET HAWK FREE, MAKING HIM A PRESENT OF ... A 
SWORD AND A FINE DAGGER WITH A JEWELLED HILT.” 

(See page 231 .) 



HAWK: THE YOUNG 
OSAGE 

A STORY OP INDIAN LIFE AND 
ADVENTURES IN THE EARLY TIMES 

BY 

C. H. ROBINSON 

AUTHOR OP 

“longhead; the story of the first fire” 


ILLUSTRATED AND DECORATED BY 

THE AVERY STUDIO 



L. C. PAGE & COMPANY 
BOSTON ^ MDCCCCXIII 






©Cl,A351943 

/ 



Contents 

CHAPTER PAGE 


I. 

His Childhood . 



I 

11 . 

His First Deer . 



20 

III. 

As A Hunter 



• 32 

IV. 

As A Man 



• 54 

V. 

His Marriage 



. 70 

VI. 

The War - Path . 



• 79 

VII. 

The Pawnees 



. 98 

VIII. 

The Scalp Dance 



. 120 

IX. 

His Own Lodge . 



. 140 

X. 

The Sacred Spring . 



• 153 

XL 

Dove Captured . 



167 

XII. 

A War Party of One 



. 185 

XIII. 

A Dangerous Position 



. 208 

XIV. 

White Men . 



. 223 

XV. 

Hernando De Soto . 



• 237 

XVI. 

The Prisoner 



. 247 

XVII. 

Success .... 



. 260 


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Xiet of miustrationo 

PAGE 

“He set Hawk free, making him a present 

OF ... A SWORD AND A FINE DAGGER WITH 
A JEWELLED HILT ” {sec page 23 1 ) Froutispiece 
“ Gave a loud yell and struck out with 

ITS HANDS ” A ^ 

“ It passed directly through the heart of 

THE Pawnee ” 94 

The Release of the Padre .... 249 





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Hawk: ^be l^ouno ©sage 


CHAPTER I 

HIS CHILDHOOD 

O NE pleasant evening an hour or 
two before sundown, a large black 
bear raised his head from a bed of 
leaves on a dry hummock in a canebrake 
near the Arkansas River. He blinked one 
eye sleepily and then the other; raised him- 
self lazily upon his haunches ; gazed dream- 
ily around as if not fully awake, and, finally, 
rose to all fours and shook himself like a 
dog does on coming out of the water. 

It now occurred to the bear that he was 
hungry, and, at the same time, he recol- 
lected there was a large blackberry patch 
1 


HAWK: THE YOUNG OSAGE 

not very far away, where the luscious fruit 
hung from the bushes in such profusion that 
by sweeping his fore paws through them, a 
bear could obtain a large mouthful at each 
stroke. 

It was true the patch was not very far 
from a village of his enemy, man; but — 
and he shrugged his shoulders — “ when 
one is hungry one must take some chances,” 
and, besides, as he remembered, the berry 
patch was quite close to a dense thicket in 
which he could, if necessary, take refuge; 
and, being very hungry, he decided to risk 
it. 

He pushed his way slowly through the 
canes until he came to a thicket of tangled 
grapevines, plum-trees and low brush, 
where he found a sort of path he had used 
several times on his way to the berry patch, 

and then he. shuffled along more rapidly. 

2 


HIS CHILDHOOD 

He was now not far from the Indian village 
and could smell the smoke from its fires, so 
he moved cautiously, taking care to step 
on no sticks which might break under his 
weight and attract the attention of a hunter, 
and his progress was silent as that of a cat. 

He had nearly reached the edge of the 
thicket and the appetizing odor of the ber- 
ries was beginning to make his mouth water, 
when his nose detected another scent. He 
sniffed silently in two or three directions 
and then locating the new smell, he fol- 
lowed up the scent and in a few steps came 
upon an Indian baby, sound asleep in its 
cradle basket of bark and woven willow 
twigs. The bear was puzzled. He had 
seen grownup Indians, indeed, he had felt 
them, for his side was still sore from a 
wound made by a hunter’s arrow; but he 

was not familiar with young specimens of 
3 


HAWK: THE YOUNG OSAGE 

the genus homo, and he stopped to inspect; 
for bears, like many other animals, have 
much curiosity. He nosed about the bark 
and basket work, which covered all but the 
red face and chubby hands. “ Humpf ! ” he 
mused — “ the scent is the same, only 
fainter, but this small animal seems to be 
partly of wood.” Finally, he picked the 
cradle up carefully in his fore paws, held 
it much as the mother would have done, 
and pushed his wet nose against the baby’s 
face. It awoke with a start, and seeing the 
great hairy face and blinky eyes so close, 
gave a loud yell and struck out with its 
hands. 

With a loud “Woof!” the startled bear 
dropped the cradle, and, in his surprise, 
stepped back upon a dry stick which broke 
with a great noise, and at the same instant, 

an Indian woman, the mother of the baby, 
4 



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HIS CHILDHOOD 

sprang from the berry bushes across a little 
opening a few rods away, screaming at the 
top of her voice. She was followed by three 
or four others, also screaming and scolding 
at the bear, for Indians believed bears could 
understand them. 

The bear, reminded by his sore side that 
these grownups might be dangerous, 
dropped to all-fours, gave one ferocious 
growl on account of his disappointment in 
regard to a berry feast, and then lumbered 
away into the thicket as fast as his legs 
could carry him. 

The Indian mother frantically caught up 
the cradle of her baby boy, and, after ascer- 
taining that he was not hurt, she stilled his 
cries after the manner known to all mothers. 
She suspended the cradle at her back by its 
strap which passed across her forehead, and 

when one of the other women handed her 
5 


HAWK: THE YOUNG OSAGE 

the basket of berries she had dropped at the 
Woof I ’’ of the bear, the party took its way 
to the village to inform the hunters that a 
large black bear was in the neighborhood. 

The father of the baby and several other 
hunters kept a close watch on the berry 
patch for a number of days, and finally, 
when Mr. Bear’s appetite overcame his dis- 
cretion and he returned for the fruit, he 
was killed. The hide was given to the 
baby’s mother, and, after being carefully 
dressed by her, it became his bed, when 
the cradle was abandoned. 

Before the advent of the whites, this con- 
tinent was more or less sparsely inhabited 
by a race of copper-colored people to whom 
Columbus and his immediate successors 
gave the name of Indians, because they be- 
lieved America to be the eastern coast of 

Asia then called The Indies.” 

6 


HIS CHILDHOOD 

These Indians were much alike in phys- 
ical appearance and had many customs in 
common, but differed in the progress they 
had made in the domestic arts, and were 
divided into several large bodies by differ- 
ences in language, and these again were 
subdivided into numerous tribes. 

Among the greater of the linguistic divi- 
sions was that of the Siouan or Dacotah 
family, which occupied the country from 
the valley of the Arkansas River to that of 
the Saskatchewan, and from the Great 
Lakes to the Rocky Mountains. 

The numerous tribes of the Siouan fam- 
ily each claimed territory within somewhat 
indefinite boundaries, and all were fre- 
quently changing from one locality to an- 
other, as the fortunes or vicissitudes of war 
might compel, or the facilities for pro- 
curing food demand ; and they waged f re- 
7 


HAWK: THE YOUNG OSAGE 

quent wars of extermination among them- 
selves. 

While all the Siouan tribes depended al- 
most wholly upon hunting wild animals — 
chiefly the buffalo — for support, and had 
no domestic animals but dogs, they all en- 
gaged in a rude agriculture to some extent, 
manufactured pottery, fairly suitable for 
their use and sometimes artistic in form, 
and had made such progress in other do- 
mestic arts as to entitle them to the name of 
barbarians rather than that of savages. 

One of the principal tribes of the Siouan 
or Dacotah family was the Osage, then oc- 
cupying a territory of large extent between 
the Arkansas and Missouri Rivers and ex- 
tending over a large part of what is now 
southeastern Kansas. 

The remnant of this tribe, now number- 
ing about fifteen hundred, is located on a 
8 


HIS CHILDHOOD 

reservation east of the Arkansas River at 
the north line of the new state of Oklahoma, 
probably about the western limit of their 
former possessions; but at the time of the 
conquest of Mexico they counted their war- 
riors by thousands and had numerous and 
populous villages. 

In one of these villages, situated on the 
Arkansas River not far from the present 
site of Fort Smith, about the time Cortez 
was making his first attack upon the City of 
Mexico, but nearly a century before any 
considerable settlement of whites was made 
in the territory now known as the United 
States, an Indian baby was born; the one 
we have just seen rescued from a bear. 

While this was his first adventure, he was 
destined to have a long and very eventful 
life, as will further appear in this story. 

His father was Ha-ha-toh-pa, or Wolf, a 
9 


HAWK: THE YOUNG OSAGE 


noted warrior of the tribe, and his mother, 
Ang-pah-o, or Dawn, was a daughter of 
one of the sub-chiefs. He was a sturdy, 
black-eyed little fellow, and within a few 
days after birth, was fastened upon a bark 
board or cradle, such as are still in use 
among the full bloods of the tribe. This 
cradle was hung to the branch of a tree or 
leaned against the side of the lodge or ti-pi, 
as might be most convenient for his mother. 

Dawn was very proud of her son, who 
was the first born of the family, and his 
cradle-board was gaily ornamented with 
colored quills and feathers, for at this time 
glass beads such as were plentifully sup- 
plied by white traders later were unknown. 
The inside of the cradle she lined with soft 
moss and hair which she changed daily that 
it might be sweet and clean. 

Our little Osage spent most of his time 
10 


HIS CHILDHOOD 

for the first year in this queer cradle, except 
when his mother bathed and fondled him 
or took him out for inspection by his ad- 
miring father and neighbors. 

It was not customary among the Osages 
to give permanent names to babies, and so 
he was called Ching-ca, Little Boy, by those 
not members of the family, and Mem-ski, 
Son, by his parents, until the time came to 
name him. 

After the bark cradle was surrendered to 
his successor, Ching-ca sprawled around the 
lodge of his parents, dressed in the clothing 
furnished by Nature, except that in the 
winter his shivering little body was pro- 
tected by a robe made from the skin of a 
buffalo calf dressed with the hair on, and 
his feet were encased in moccasins upon 
which his mother had expended all her skill 

in the ornamentation. 

11 


HAWK: THE YOUNG OSAGE 


He was called by the neighbors a bright 
boy, and his sturdy legs soon began to carry 
him from lodge to lodge all over the village. 
His parents thought him the smartest boy 
in the tribe and were proud accordingly. 
When Wolf returned from the war-path or 
a hunt, Mem-ski was the first for whom he 
inquired, and he often spent hours dandling 
him upon his knees, singing to him the wild 
songs, and, as he grew older, telling him the 
strange stories handed down from genera- 
tion to generation in the folk-lore of the 
Osages. As he grew in stature and intellect, 
he became the very apple of his father’s eye. 
He was never punished and seldom scolded. 
This might do for girls, but the Osages be- 
lieved that to punish a boy would tend to 
break his spirit and prevent his becoming 
a brave warrior when grown; so Mem-ski 

was always treated with the utmost kindness. 

12 


HIS CHILDHOOD 

As the boy grew old enough to begin to 
comprehend his father’s stories of war and 
hunting parties, they took hold of his imag- 
ination, and when he placed his father’s 
war-bonnet upon his diminutive head and 
with his small tomahawk in hand strutted 
about the lodge showing how he would slay 
the enemies of the tribe when he became a 
man, the father’s delight knew no bounds. 

When he was about six years old Wolf 
made for him a diminutive stone toma- 
hawk, as carefully finished and polished, 
however, as was his own, and soon after he 
gave him a beautiful bow and some arrows, 
carefully feathered but with blunt heads, 
that no serious accident should result from 
the reckless shooting he was likely to in- 
dulge in, and spent hours in showing him 
how to adjust the arrow to the string, draw 
back and let it fly. 


13 


HAWK: THE YOUNG OSAGE 

One day Wolf said to his wife: “ Dawn, 
our son is growing to be a sturdy lad, and 
don’t you think it is about time to quit call- 
ing Son and Little Boy and give him a per- 
manent name?” Madame Dawn at once 
agreed to this and the medicine-man of the 
tribe was visited by the father and em- 
ployed to select a name for his son. 

Naming an Osage girl was a matter of 
no importance, and she could either grow 
up as Little Girl or the parents might give 
her a name as they decided upon without 
any ceremony whatever, but the naming of 
a boy was a very important matter. His 
whole after life was likely to be affected by 
his name, and the medicine-man could not 
undertake the job without several days’ 
meditation. He must be paid, too, for his 
knowledge and skill. The number of buf- 
falo robes and haunches of venison to be 
14 


HIS CHILDHOOD 

paid as his fee having been finally agreed 
upon, the medicine-man retired to his lodge 
to meditate upon the important question. 
He lighted his oldest and most mysterious 
pipe, blew smoke toward the earth, the sky 
and the four principal points of the heavens, 
then took a long walk upon the prairie, 
hoping that something would occur to sug- 
gest a proper name. When some distance 
from the village, he saw a hawk, which had 
been hovering in the air, suddenly swoop 
down and arise with a plump young jack- 
rabbit struggling and squealing in its talons. 
This at once determined the question, and 
the boy was given the name of Chang-ska, 
Hawk, with all due ceremony at a feast 
given the next day by his parents, during 
which all the guests received valuable 
presents. 

Until he was about twelve years old, 
15 


HAWK: THE YOUNG OSAGE 

Chang-ska associated with the women and 
other small children of the village, strength- 
ening his muscles by running and romping 
from morning till night, and his lungs by 
frequently yelling at the top of his voice. 
Crying had never been in his line, for Osage 
mothers broke their babies of this habit at 
a very early age, by holding a hand over 
the mouth at each attempt until it was given 
up ; and even for the small hurts of child- 
hood, Hawk had learned to firmly close his 
lips and bear the pain without a whimper 
or sound of complaint. 

He now gradually changed his associates, 
no longer seeking the companyof thewomen 
and children, but the boys of his own age 
and older; he engaged in long distance 
races, swimming, ball playing and other 
sports. The ball game was something like 

foot-ball except that a small ball was used 
16 


HIS CHILDHOOD 


which must never be touched with the hand 
or foot, but must be taken up and thrown 
toward the goal with a long handled stick 
having a small pouch at the end woven of 
rawhide thongs. These boys also practised 
daily with their small tomahawks. A buf- 
falo skull would be set up at a proper dis- 
tance and each would throw in turn to see 
who could strike it more nearly in the 
center in such a manner that the blade edge 
first came in contact with the skull. They 
threw spears also at a mark and practised 
a great deal with bows; first to see who 
could send his blunt arrow the highest or 
furthest, and then at marks. 

As they grew older they organized and 
conducted hunting parties against the squir- 
rels, prairie dogs, jack-rabbits and other 
small animals. In these they closely imi- 
tated the actions of their elders, sometimes 
17 


HAWK: THE YOUNG OSAGE 


creeping stealthily upon the game and some- 
times forming large circles which they 
gradually closed, shooting at all the animals 
finally found within, and when a boy 
proudly carried to the lodge of his parents 
a small animal which he had killed, he 
was greatly praised and it was cooked spe- 
cially for him. 

This was Hawk’s education, and by these 
exercises his muscles became hardened and 
his powers of endurance such that he could 
run for miles at full speed and at the end 
scarcely draw a longl)reath. He became, 
too, an expert swimmer and could swim 
under water with great rapidity, coming to 
the surface for a moment only at long in- 
tervals for air. He could throw a spear or 
tomahawk with force and accuracy, handle 
a flint knife in skinning animals, and fre- 
quently returned from excursions with some 
18 


HIS CHILDHOOD 

small game as an addition to the family 
larder. 

When permitted, he visited the meetings 
of the warriors and hunters, heard them re- 
count their experiences on the hunt or war- 
path, and became familiar with the tradi- 
tions of the tribe. When he heard these 
stories he had a great desire to grow faster 
that he might be a man and a warrior and 
act his part in these stirring adventures. 


19 


hawk: the young OSAGE 


CHAPTER II 

HIS FIRST DEER 

W HEN Hawk was about seven- 
teen years old he had become so 
expert with the bow that he was 
quite a factor in providing food for the 
family, but his hunting expeditions had so 
far been confined to small game. 

He had assumed the dress of a man, that 
is, he wore a breech-cloth, leggings and 
moccasins. He carried in his belt his toma- 
hawk and flint knife and he never left the 
village without his bow and arrows in their 
skin case slung over his shoulder. He had 
learned to make his own weapons, too, and 
had manufactured a bow and arrows which 

would shoot after a fashion, but they did 
20 


HIS FIRST DEER 


not nearly equal those made by his father, 
who was noted for the superior quality and 
elegance of his weapons. This, weapon- 
making was also a part of the boy’s educa- 
tion and he had made good progress. 

One evening, soon after he had passed his 
seventeenth birthday. Wolf made his son a 
present of a fine bow with a case, and a 
quiver full of the best arrows he could 
make, perfectly straight, well feathered and 
barbed with sharp flints of his best work- 
manship. Hawk was delighted with the 
gift and was anxious for an opportunity to 
test his weapons, so when his father said: 
“ Chang-ska, my son, you are tall and strong 
and fast becoming a man. It is time for 
you to abandon your boyish sports and com- 
panions and assist in supporting the family, 
and I invite you to go hunting with me to- 
morrow morning,” Hawk was greatly 
21 


HAWK: THE YOUNG OSAGE 

pleased, but he made no show of his joy as 
that would have been childish. He merely 
bowed his head and said: “My father, I 
will be ready.” He had felt for some time 
that he was not appreciated at his full value, 
but now he was to have a chance. He al- 
most walked on air as he went among the 
other boys of the village that evening. He 
felt rather sorry for them, but not a word 
did he say of his good fortune, for it would 
not have been manly, according to Osage 
etiquette, to have gossipped about his per- 
sonal affairs. He slept little that night, 
however, and waited with impatience for 
his father to call him in the morning. This 
he did long before daylight, and they pro- 
ceeded toward a deer-lick or salt spring a 
few miles from the village, which was much 
frequented by deer and other animals for 

the taste of the salt. On the way his father 
22 


HIS FIRST DEER 

carefully instructed him in regard to the 
habits of that wary animal, the deer, and the 
care with which it was necessary to ap- 
proach its haunts. He told him that the 
direction of the wind must always be care- 
fully observed and that he must make his 
approach so that it blew in his face, other- 
wise that animal, with its fine sense of smell, 
would catch his scent and make its escape. 
Wolf gave him many other instructions, in- 
cluding the necessity of remaining perfectly 
still and concealed while awaiting the ap- 
proach of the animals at the lick, and, on 
this occasion, until the game was^ surely 
within bow-shot. 

Just as daylight was beginning to appear. 
Wolf placed his son behind a low thick 
bush near the lick and showed him a small 
path a few rods distant by which he might 

expect the animals to come. He told Hawk 
23 


HAWK: THE YOUNG OSAGE 


he would himself go to another lick a short 
distance away but within call, and that he 
must depend wholly upon himself. Instead 
of doing this, Wolf, who desired to observe 
Hawk’s conduct, carefully concealed him- 
self in a tree from which he could watch 
the boy’s actions. 

Daylight spread slowly over the prairie 
and finally began to dimly light up the 
grove and thicket which surrounded the 
lick. With arrow upon the string. Hawk 
stood as rigid as a statue behind the bush 
where his father had placed him, every 
faculty intent to discover the approach of 
the game. The minutes sped by rapidly, 
but they seemed like hours to the waiting 
boy. At length he heard the noise of a 
breaking stick, and, peering cautiously 
through the bushes in the direction of the 

sound, he saw the antlers of a buck. The 
24 


HIS FIRST DEEK 


animal was approaching slowly along the 
path, halting from time to time, and only 
his horns appeared above the bushes, but as 
he crossed a small opening. Hawk saw that 
he was accompanied by two does. The 
animals approached very slowly, stopping 
frequently to sniff the air, and the boy was 
afraid they might scent the danger, but oc- 
casionally he caught a glimpse of the antlers 
coming nearer and nearer. The wind was 
blowing directly from the animals toward 
the boy, so there was no danger of their ob- 
taining his scent and no fear of discovery 
unless he should make a noise. He scarcely 
breathed, but his heart was beating so 
loudly he was sure they must hear it. The 
animals now reached another opening, and, 
although still too far away to risk a shot, 
the boy drew his arrow to the head and 

aimed at the buck. The waiting father in 
25 


HAWK: THE YOUNG OSAGE 

the tree saw this action and came near 
shouting to him to wait, but Hawk had no 
intention of shooting: he knew he had a 
bad attack of “ buck-fever ” and was simply 
trying to get control of his nerves. He low- 
ered his bow slowly although still trem- 
bling with excitement. 

The animals now began to approach the 
lick and once when they disappeared be- 
hind the bushes for some time, Hawk be- 
gan to fear they had taken alarm and 
sneaked off through the thicket, but soon 
he again saw the antlers above the bushes 
and in a moment all three stood still in a 
small opening but a few yards away. This 
was his opportunity. He swallowed rap- 
idly and steadied his nerves with all the 
resolution he could summon, then drew 
back the string with all his strength until 

the head of the arrow touched his left hand, 
26 


HIS FIRST DEEK 


aiming just behind the fore shoulder of the 
buck which stood with its side toward him, 
and let fly, but not without some misgivings 
as to the result. Greatly to his satisfaction, 
the buck with a sharp bleat, bounded high 
in the air showing the arrow buried in his 
side. The does at once made off at a great 
pace before he could adjust another arrow, 
but the buck, after two or three convulsive 
bounds, fell just at the edge of the thicket. 
Joyfully sounding the cry agreed upon with 
his father. Hawk bounded from his cover 
knife in hand. As he approached the 
animal to cut its throat, the buck suddenly 
rose to its feet with every hair on its body 
tu-rned to the front, and, with an angry 
bleat, charged him. He dropped his bow 
in the excitement of the moment and before 
he could recover it and affix another arrow, 

the animal was upon him its eyes blazing 
27 


HAWK: THE YOUNG OSAGE 

with fury, its horns lowered and its sharp 
hoofs ready to cut him in pieces. The boy 
knew from stories of the hunters that a 
wounded buck was a dangerous foe, and 
profiting by what he had heard, he caught 
the animal by its horns as it reached him 
and endeavored to hold its head to the 
ground as his only means of defence until 
his father, who must have heard his shout, 
could arrive upon the scene. 

The beast would soon have proved more 
than a match for his boyish antagonist and 
had already cut a number of gashes in his 
body with its sharp hoofs, when Wolf, who 
had scrambled from the tree on hearing the 
cry of Hawk and seeing him dash into the 
thicket, reached the spot. So busy were the 
combatants that neither noticed his ap- 
proach and a blow from his stone axe at 

once prostrated the deer. Having cut its 
28 


HIS FIRST DEER 

throat, he turned his attention to his son, 
who was bleeding from a dozen gashes. 
Hawk was too much elated to regard his 
wounds as serious, and, although he en- 
deavored to assume the stoical dignity of 
a veteran hunter, his eyes sparkled as he 
listened to his father’s congratulations and 
praises of his bravery. 

The legs of the buck were soon tied to- 
gether and a stick being thrust through, 
father and son carried it to the village. 

When the deer was thrown down at the 
door of their lodge and Wolf announced 
that Hawk had killed it, his mother em- 
braced him with pride and the whole fam- 
ily and relatives made much of him. The 
inhabitants of the neighboring lodges too 
gathered around and congratulated him 
upon killing his first deer. Among these 

Hawk saw, shyly peeping through between 
29 


HAWK: THE YOUNG OSAGE 


two older persons, Wa-ki-ye-dan, the Dove, 
a daughter of a neighbor, who had been his 
favorite playmate in the days when he asso- 
ciated with the women and children. She 
was looking squarely at him, and as he 
caught the admiration in her eyes, he was 
conscious of a new sensation. 

Hawk positively refused to have the 
wounds made by the hoofs of the buck 
washed or dressed, although they were 
quite painful, until he had first strutted 
through the village, where he was both ad- 
mired and envied by the other boys with 
whom he had associated. 

Great was the rejoicing in the family of 
Wolf; not so much on account of the ac- 
quisition of the buck as food, as because 
Hawk had shown that he was brave and 
would become an honor to the family. 

When the deer had been carefully 
30 


HIS FIRST DEER 


skinned, Dawn announced that she would 
dress the hide and from it make the breech- 
cloth and leggings which Hawk should 
wear on his first war-path, as she felt sure 
this would bring him good luck. 

All the relatives were now invited to a 
feast, for which the body of the buck fur- 
nished the principal part. During the fes- 
tivities Wolf told the story of the hunt, and 
when he related the fact that he had been 
in a tree watching the boy all the time, it 
raised quite a laugh. Hawk said nothing, 
but he felt glad he had not known it at the 
time, for he was sure it would have made 
him so nervous that he would have missed 
the deer entirely. 


31 


HAWK: THE YOUNG OSAGE 


CHAPTER III 

AS A HUNTER 

A fter Hawk’s battle with the big 
buck he no longer joined in the 
sports and mock hunts of his former 
boyish associates, except that he still took 
an enthusiastic part in the ball games, which 
were played by the warriors as well as the 
boys for the purpose of hardening the mus- 
cles to the endurance necessary in both war 
and the chase. The most noted warriors 
and hunters were usually the best ball 
players also. 

From babyhood until now Hawk had 
worn his front hair banged,” or square 
across above his eyes. There being then no 

such a thing as a pair of shears in America, 
32 


AS A HUNTER 

his mother had kept it at a proper length 
by singeing off the ends from time to time 
with a live coal. Now he refused to have 
this done, and allowed it to grow long, that 
he might appear more manly, until he 
should take his first scalp, when he might 
have it trimmed in warrior’s style. He now 
sought the companionship of the men and 
was often permitted to draw near the coun- 
cil-fire and listen to their deliberations. 
He also joined their hunting parties, being 
frequently invited, for his adventure with 
the buck had given him a reputation as a 
boy who had something in him. Some- 
times he went on hunts alone or with his 
father or other single companion. On these 
occasions he studied carefully the haunts 
and habits of all the animals of the local- 
ity. 

He soon became so expert with the bow 
33 


HAWK: THE YOUNG OSAGE 

that about this time Wolf joined a war- 
party against the Pawnees, confidently 
leaving the whole support of the family to 
Hawk who kept his mother’s lodge plenti- 
fully supplied during his father’s absence. 

The hides of all the animals he killed his 
mother carefully dressed for their proper 
use, but kept them afterwards in separate 
bales, to be used when the time came, in the 
purchase of a wife for him. There being 
no ponies in the country at that time, hides 
and furs constituted the legal tender for 
such purposes. She knew that her son 
would not be permitted to marry until he 
had become a full member of the tribe 
through the cruel ordeal of initiation, but 
she had already noticed the boy casting ad- 
miring glances at their neighbor Dove, 
when he thought he was unnoticed, and 

she was not slow to observe that Dove found 
34 


AS A HUNTER 

it necessary to be at the door of her mother’s 
lodge quite often when Hawk was at home, 
and that the girl always had her hair 
smoothly combed and wore such ornaments 
as she possessed. Ever since she had noticed 
that Hawk admired Dove, she had care- 
fully observed the girl and was well sat- 
isfied to have her for a daughter-in-law if 
the matter could be arranged. She was 
healthy and handsome, as well as clean and 
neat in her personal appearance, and was a 
great help to her mother, who had a large 
family, assisting her in fleshing and dress- 
ing hides, cultivating the corn and vege- 
tables in the family grounds, and in making 
pottery and preparing the food and cloth- 
ing for the family. She felt sure that Dove 
would make her son a good wife. 

Hawk was now making such rapid strides 

toward manhood that she felt he would soon 
35 


HAWK: THE YOUNG OSAGE 


apply for initiation, and she was sure the 
Council would deem him worthy of the 
honor. 

On one of his solitary excursions Hawk 
had another adventure with a buck, in 
which he was less fortunate than in the first. 
The animal when wounded did not fall as 
had the first one, but bounded away with 
the arrow sticking in its side, and Hawk 
followed him for some miles hoping for 
another shot. At length, coming suddenly 
around the point of a rocky bluff, he came 
directly upon the animal, which had been 
waiting for his approach and charged him 
at once. He had his bow ready this time, 
but the sudden onset disconcerted his aim 
and the arrow struck the buck in the 
shoulder making but a slight wound which 
only increased its rage, and before the boy 

could make a second shot the animal was 
36 


AS A HUNTER 

upon him bearing him to the ground. One 
of its prongs made a deep hole in his thigh 
and another tore a gash several inches long 
across his breast. Fearing that a prong 
might find a vital spot, Hawk tried in vain 
to grasp the buck by the horas, but was un- 
successful, receiving several other serious 
wounds. He was fast losing his strength, 
when suddenly there was a rushing sound 
in the thicket and the enraged animal, aban- 
doning his now nearly helpless enemy, 
bounded away. The next moment a couple 
of does with their fawns rushed past closely 
pursued by a pack of wolves. 

Hawk now arose bruised and bleeding 
but glad enough to be alive. Slowly and 
painfully he dragged himself to the village 
and it was more than a week before he 
could walk without great pain. His 

mother waited upon him assiduously and 
37 


HAWK: THE YOUNG OSAGE 

dressed his wounds with cold water and 
such salves and herbs as were approved for 
injuries. Dove stopped several times as she 
passed the lodge to learn how her old play- 
mate was getting along, and when his 
mother told him of these inquiries she could 
see that he was greatly pleased, although it 
was beneath his dignity to give any indica- 
tions of his pleasure. 

By the time Hawk had fully recovered, 
his father returned in safety with several 
Pawnee scalps and Hawk accepted an in- 
vitation to join a hunting party which was 
going into what is now known as Kansas 
to hunt buffaloes. It was to be a large party 
composed of many of the best hunters of 
the tribe, and, in addition, many of the 
women were to accompany the party to care 
for the meat and hides after the game was 

killed. I-mun-tang-ka, the Panther, the 
38 


AS A HUNTER 

father of Dove, was to command the party, 
and Hawk soon discovered that the girl 
was to go also. In fact, he learned it from 
his mother, who had been told by Dove 
herself. Hawk had to maneuver not a little 
to secure an invitation, for Panther was 
desirous to have experienced hunters rather 
than boys for the expedition. However, 
Hawk had acquired some reputation for 
coolness and bravery, and when finally in- 
vited he accepted at once. 

In a few days the party reached a locality 
where they might expect to find buffaloes, 
and at once built their temporary shelters 
in a grove convenient to wood and water 
and erected frames of brush for drying 
meat. Scouts were then sent out to look for 
the buffaloes and to watch for any ap- 
proaching enemy, and hunters were de- 
tailed to kill smaller game for their imme- 
39 


HAWK: THE YOUNG OSAGE 

diate use. Hawk was among the latter and 
he proved one of the most successful. 

On the second day the scouts reported 
that a large herd of buffaloes was approach- 
ing, and preparations were made accord- 
ingly. Weapons were prepared and decoys 
were gotten in readiness. These decoys 
were hides of buffaloes carefully skinned 
with the horns left on, the skin of the heads 
being stretched over light willow frames. 
A hunter, clothed in one of these, concealed 
himself in the bushes to the front of the 
herd and far enough in advance to prevent 
the animals from detecting the cheat. As 
they advanced he would emerge from the 
bushes and, by imitating the motions made 
by the real animal while feeding, decoy the 
herd within reach of the arrows of his com- 
rades who lay concealed behind the bushes. 

By the time the buffaloes were near, the 
40 


AS A HUNTER 

hunting party had secured a favorable am- 
bush and the decoys were so successful that 
quite a number of the beasts were killed the 
first day. Hawk had the good luck to bring 
down a couple of fine ones, and, as his ar- 
rows had his private mark on them, he had 
no difficulty in proving his property and 
securing the meat and hides. Chang-hung, 
or Strongbow, a noted hunter and the 
brother of Hawk’s mother, with his family, 
were members of the party, and he readily 
secured their assistance to dry his meat and 
cure his hides, while he aided in supplying 
their larder with small game. 

For several days the herd remained in 
the vicinity and a large number of -the 
animals were killed, but finally the buffa- 
loes became alarmed and left the locality. 
All hands, however, were busy for several 

days curing the hides and drying the meat. 

41 


HAWK: THE YOUNG OSAGE 

The meat was cut in thin strips and hung in 
the sun upon the brush frames, and in the 
dry air of the plains it soon became as hard 
as wood. It was then made into packs in 
the partially dried hides, from fifty to one 
hundred pounds being in a pack, to be 
transported to the village on dog travois 
when they should be ready to return. 

These travois were the only artificial 
means of transportation known to the 
Osages of that day, but answered the pur- 
pose very well. To make one, a couple of 
long light poles were lashed together near 
their tops; these were placed over the neck 
of one of the large wolf-like dogs, of which 
there were a great number with the party, 
and fastened to his rawhide collar or har- 
ness. The poles passed along his sides like 
shafts and the ends dragged along the 

ground behind. Immediately behind the 
42 


AS A HUNTER 

dog, poles were lashed across from shaft 
to shaft making small platforms upon 
which the packs were lashed and a dog 
would thus drag from fifty to one hundred 
pounds. 

After all the meat and hides had been 
secured ready for transportation and the 
stomachs of the slain animals had been 
filled with brains, tallow and the marrow 
from the large bones, the party remained 
for some time hoping that another herd of 
buffalo might appear. In the meantime 
the hunters were occupied in hunting elk 
and deer, of which there were many in the 
neighborhood, while the women prepared 
the meat and hides of these in a similar 
manner. 

One day Hawk was hunting alone, but 
found game scarce and wandered a long 

distance from camp. At length, late in the 
43 


HAWK; THE YOUNG OSAGE 


afternoon, he wounded an elk which he fol- 
lowed for several miles, still away from 
the Osage encampment, hoping for another 
shot. About dusk he killed it, and despair- 
ing of getting help to take in the meat be- 
fore it should be devoured by the wolves, 
he removed the hide, cut off some of the 
best meat, and after making a fire, cooked 
himself a good supper. He was very tired 
and concluded to remain there for the night 
and hunt back toward camp the next morn- 
ing. 

At the peep of day the next morning he 
was up and as he was about to make a fire 
to cook his breakfast, he heard a slight noise 
in the ravine above him. He at once sank 
down behind a bush and watched with great 
attention. Soon he saw in the grey dawn, 
several shadowy forms crossing the ravine, 

and it seemed to him that one of them was 
44 


AS A HUNTER 


a woman and a prisoner, but it was not light 
enough to determine with certainty. The 
boy, after some minutes’ thought, concluded 
that there was something suspicious in the 
movement of the forms he had seen. No 
hunters of his party were likely to be so far 
from the camp at that hour, and, above all, 
it was scarcely probable that if Osages, they 
would be accompanied by a woman. He 
determined to take up the trail and follow it 
long enough to ascertain who the strangers 
were, and if the woman was a prisoner. 
Accordingly, he ate some of the elk meat 
raw, for he knew it was not safe to make 
a fire, then went to the place where the 
party had crossed the ravine and carefully 
examined the trail. He found the foot- 
prints of several men and one woman. 
From their shape he concluded that the 

moccasins of the men were of Pawnee 
45 


HAWK: THE YOUNG OSAGE 

manufacture, and he was equally certain 
that those of the woman were Osage. 

All was now clear to his mind. A party 
of Pawnees had approached the Osage 
camp, and finding a woman at a little dis- 
tance, had captured her and were now 
making their escape to their own village. 
He conjectured that it must have occurred 
about dark the evening before, as it would 
take about that long for the party to reach 
the place where he saw them by daylight, 
especially as they must have travelled by a 
circuitous route to find ground which 
would, to any extent, conceal their trail. 

Hawk wondered who the woman could 
be, and all at once it occurred to him that 
it might be Dove. His heart came into his 
mouth at the thought, and he paused to 
consider the situation. He was only a boy, 

and the tracks, although efforts had been 
46 


AS A HUNTER 

made to confuse them, indicated that there 
were at least five in the party and he knew 
to attack them single handed, simply meant 
that he would be killed or taken prisoner, 
while to follow the trail was almost equally 
dangerous, for some of them would fall back 
every few miles to watch for pursuers, and 
he was likely to be shot from ambush. He 
felt sure the prisoner was an Osage woman 
and that a party would take the trail in pur- 
suit with the first light. Their progress 
would be slow, for the trail would be con- 
cealed with all the skill known to the Paw- 
nees, and, on reflection, he concluded that 
the most efficient service he could render 
would be to take the back trail, meet his 
friends as soon as possible and guide them 
directly to the point where he had seen the 
party, and thus save them the time which 

would be lost in search for the trail. As he 
47 


HAWK: THE YOUNG OSAGE 


looked around for a landmark to guide him 
on a rapid return, he noted a tall lone tree 
on the top of a neighboring bluff, which he 
fixed in his mind. He then drew his belt 
tight and discarding the elk skin, on account 
of its weight, he took up the back trail of 
the Pawnees and followed it as rapidly as 
possible. The trail was fresh and he had 
little difficulty in keeping it, and, besides, 
he knew the general direction must be from 
the Osage encampment. He was young 
and vigorous and well rested by a night’s 
sleep, and he made pretty good time, so that 
long before noon he caught sight of the 
pursuing party crossing a prairie at the dis- 
tance of several miles. He at once kindled 
a fire with his fire-sticks, and when it was 
well started, threw on a quantity of wet 
grass which made a column of very black 

smoke. This he disturbed by interrupting 
48 


AS A HUNTER 

the column with a leafy branch so that the 
smoke arose in broken bunches in the man- 
ner used by the Osages in signalling. He 
knew this would at once attract the atten- 
tion of the pursuers and inform them that 
the smoke was made by one of their own 
tribe, who had something of importance to 
communicate. In a few minutes he saw the 
party change its course and start directly 
toward him. He left the fire and hurried 
to meet them. He found the Osages headed 
by the Panther, and learned to his horror 
that it was indeed Dove who had been taken 
prisoner. She had been captured about 
dusk when returning with some wild plums 
she had gathered in a thicket a short dis- 
tance from camp. 

In a few words Hawk told of his acci- 
dental discovery of the Pawnee party, their 

number, and that he had seen a prisoner 
49 


HAWK: THE YOUNG OSAGE 

with them. He pointed out in the dim dis- 
tance the lone tree which was near the trail, 
and the Osages made directly for it. 

The Panther warmly commended Hawk 
for his good sense in taking the back trail 
to meet them instead of attempting to fol- 
low the enemy alone. 

The pursuers reached the lone tree early 
in the afternoon, and stopping only long 
enough to eat some of the food they had 
brought with them, followed after the Paw- 
nees. The trail was plainer than before, as 
the enemy was in great haste and could 
spare but little time to conceal it, and be- 
fore it was entirely dark the Panther con- 
cluded they must be within a few miles of 
the Pawnee party. Ten of the best war- 
riors, under the charge of Panther, at once 
set out to search for them, while the others, 

including Hawk, were ordered to follow 
50 


AS A HUNTER 

slowly in the general direction and listen 
carefully for signals, which were agreed 
upon. Some time after midnight the scouts 
joined the others and reported that the 
Pawnees had gone into camp at a late hour 
about five miles beyond. The Osages now 
made their way with great caution, that they 
might not be discovered by the scouts which 
the party had no doubt left behind to watch 
the back trail, and made a wide detour to 
avoid them. They reached the vicinity of 
the camp just as day was breaking and 
charged at once. The camp guard, a single 
Pawnee, was shot through the body, but 
with his dying breath gave a whoop of 
alarm. The remaining three Pawnees, find- 
ing the Osages upon them in great numbers, 
made no stop to fight, but fled at once and 
succeeded in making their escape. 

Hawk, being a mere boy, had no particu- 
51 


HAWK: THE YOUNG OSAGE 

lar duty assigned to him in the charge, but 
kept close to Panther, and when they entered 
the Pawnee camp it was light enough for 
him to see Dove lying tied to a log, and he 
immediately cut her bonds and released 
her. At first she could not stand and Hawk 
supported her in his arms for one delicious 
moment, chafing her wrists, which were 
swollen from the tightness of the cords. 
Dove was not injured, and in a moment she 
recovered her full strength and gave an 
affectionate greeting to her father, who 
had recalled his men from the pursuit of 
the escaping Pawnees. She said she was 
ready to start at once for the Osage camp, 
but they remained an hour or two for food 
and rest, a runner being dispatched to in- 
form the Osages of her recovery. 

The Panther told Hawk in a few words 

that he owed his daughter’s rescue to the 
52 


AS A HUNTER 

presence of mind he had shown in turning 
back on the trail for assistance on his dis- 
covery of the Pawnees with their prisoner, 
and that he must always consider the 
Panther as his friend. 

Hawk said but little, but he thought often 
of the few moments he had held Dove in 
his arms, and he resolved to apply at once 
for initiation into manhood, that he might 
ask for her as his wife. 

As for Dove, Hawk was her hero and she 
would have died for him. 


53 


HAWK: THE YOUNG OSAGE 


CHAPTER IV 

AS A MAN 

S OON after the return of the party to 
the village, Hawk again went hunt- 
ing with his father. They had killed 
a half-grown elk, after following it for some 
miles, were a long distance from the village 
and very tired and so concluded to rest and 
have some food before carrying the heavy 
load of meat home. Hawk brought a 
couple of arm-loads of driftwood to a shady 
place near a spring. His father, selecting 
a couple of dry cottonwood roots from the 
pile, shaped them slightly with his knife. 
One of them he made flat on both sides, and 

cut a small depression on one side with a 
54 


AS A MAN 

notch leading down from it, while the other, 
which was slender and straight and about 
two feet long, he merely rounded on the 
end to fit the depression. Kneeling upon 
the flattened one he put the end of the other 
in the depression and rapidly twirled it be- 
tween his hands. A little finely powdered 
wood was ground off and fell down into the 
notch and from this, in a few seconds, a 
small column of smoke began to ascend. 
Wolf then ceased twirling and fanned the 
smoking heap with his hand, feeding it with 
some powdered rotten-wood, and in a mo- 
ment a tiny flame shot up and they soon had 
a roaring fire. 

In the meantime Hawk had stripped the 
skin from the haunch of the elk and had cut 
out a piece of steak which appeared to be 
enough for a large family. Soon father and 

son were toasting dainty morsels of elk ven- 
55 


HAWK: THE YOUNG OSAGE 

ison before the fire on sticks and eating them 
when cooked, first putting on a small quan- 
tity of ashes instead of salt. When the meal 
was completed both produced stone pipes, 
which they filled with tobacco mixed with 
the bark of the red willow, and began to 
smoke. 

After a few whiffs Hawk said: “My 
father, do you not think I am old enough 
for admission as a warrior of the tribe? I 
feel that I am now a man and long for the 
time when I may join the men on the war- 
path and in the Council House; besides, 
I want to marry.” 

When Wolf heard this statement he took 
several whiffs from his pipe before making 
reply, and then he said : “ My son, do you 
realize that to be admitted as a warrior of 
the tribe, you must first be tested by an or- 
deal of initiation whicfi may well tax the 
56 


AS A MAN 

endurance of the strongest men? You are 
still very young, and, while I would be 
glad to see you a warrior, do you under- 
stand that if you undertake this and fail to 
endure the tests, you will be forever barred 
from becoming a warrior and must wear 
women’s clothing and do women’s work 
for the rest of your life, and that you will 
never be permitted to marry? Had you not 
better wait a few years until you are sure of 
your power of endurance and certain that 
it will carry you safely through this or- 
deal?” 

In reply Hawk said: “ I have considered 
everything and I feel that what other men 
have endured I can endure. Since I res- 
cued Dove from the wolves I feel that she 
loves me; I am impatient to claim her as 
my wife and do not wish to wait longer.” 

Very well,” said Wolf. “ I will bring the 
57 


HAWK: THE YOUNG OSAGE 

matter before the Council at the next meet- 
ing.” 

At a meeting of the Council a few nights 
later, Wolf arose and in a few words pre- 
sented the request of his son to be admitted 
to full membership in the tribe. He said 
it was known to many of the Council that 
while Hawk was young, he had already 
become a bold and successful hunter. His 
son felt that he was a man and was ready to 
undergo the ordeal prescribed by custom 
and tradition. 

Panther, the father of Dove, then ad- 
dressed the Council in Hawk’s behalf. He 
said that Chang-ska had grown up under 
his own eye, and although very young for 
a warrior, he had never known a more 
promising youth. He was brave and capa- 
ble and he was sure he would be a credit 

to the tribe as a warrior. One or two of the 
58 


AS A MAN 

Council at first raised some objection on 
account of Hawk’s youth, but all admitted 
that he was brave and manly. 

The crier of the Council now distributed 
to each member two small sticks, one of 
which was painted red, and then collected 
the ballot, a red stick being for, and a 
plain one against the candidate. All the 
votes being red, it was announced that 
Chang-ska, son of Ha-ha-toh-pa, was to be 
admitted as a warrior of the tribe upon 
successfully passing the ordeal of initiation. 

This, the most important event in the 
life of an Osage, could not be undertaken 
without a course of preparation and puri- 
fication prescribed by immemorial custom, 
so the next day the medicine-man was con- 
sulted to learn what time would be the most 
propitious for the event. Having consid- 
ered the question, he announced that the 
59 


HAWK: THE YOUNG OSAGE 


signs were then favorable but Hawk must 
first submit to sweating, fasts and other 
preparatory ceremonials. 

The In-i-ti-pi, or sweat-lodge, of the 
village was a low hut built of logs and 
covered with several feet of earth, with a 
small hole for entrance at one side. A 
large fire was built near the In-i-ti-pi and 
stones heated therein. The medicine-man 
was in attendance, and when Hawk, en- 
tirely naked, presented himself, the heated 
stones were taken into the sweat-lodge with 
some vessels of water to pour over them, the 
boy entered and the entrance was closed 
with a buffalo hide. The medicine-man 
began his incantations, marching around 
the lodge in the direction travelled by the 
sun, shaking his sacred rattle and chanting 
the proper formulas which were to make 

the boy a brave and successful warrior and 
60 


AS A MAN 

smoking his most sacred pipe, from which 
he blew the smoke toward the sky, the earth, 
the four quarters of the heavens and finally 
toward the lodge. Within, Hawk poured 
the water on the hot stones, and when he 
had perspired almost to exhaustion, he 
emerged from the sweat-lodge and running 
to the nearby river, plunged into the cold 
water, after which he returned to the In-i- 
ti-pi, where he must remain without either 
food or drink and must on no account speak 
to any one. The next day the sweating 
and fasting were continued, and so on for 
five days, when the medicine-man an- 
nounced that Hawk was sufficiently puri- 
fied to undertake the last test of initiation. 

In the meantime Wolf had planted in the 
ground about half a mile from the village, 
a post about fifteen feet high to which at 

the top he had attached two rawhide ropes 
61 


HAWK: THE YOUNG OSAGE 


about half an inch thick and each about 
thirty feet long. The next morning, on a 
sign from his father, Hawk followed him 
from the sweat-lodge to the post, not a word 
being spoken by either, as this would surely 
bring bad luck, and he must speak to no 
one until the whole ordeal be safely passed. 
Wolf, with his flint knife, cut two gashes 
about an inch apart on each side of Hawk’s 
back clear down to the ribs and then in- 
serted the ends of the ropes and tied them 
fast. The pain of this operation was fear- 
ful, but the boy had nerved himself for it 
and not a sound escaped him nor did a 
muscle quiver. His father observed with 
pride this evidence of his manliness, but 
concealed his own emotion and sympathy 
for his suffering son under the stoical coun- 
tenance of an Indian, and without a word 

or backward look returned to the village. 

62 


AS A MAN 


As soon as Wolf was fairly out of sight, 
Hawk, who had been left at the base of the 
post, made a rush to the end of the ropes 
with all his strength, but the muscles of his 
back were too strong or he was too much 
exhausted by the fasting and sweating he 
had undergone, for he failed to tear out 
the ropes. The pain was excruciating and 
he fell fainting to the ground, where he 
lay for some hours unconscious. A slight 
shower, which fell soon after, revived him, 
and he returned to the base of the post and 
sat down to consider the situation. He had 
the choice of two courses: first, to tear the 
ropes out through the skin and integuments, 
in which case his trial was over and he be- 
came a warrior with a right to ask for the 
hand of Dove; second, to untie the ropes 
and return to his father’s lodge forever dis- 
graced, to live as a woman and do women’s 
63 


HAWK: THE YOUNG OSAGE 


work and never be permitted to marry or 
be recognized as a man. Then he thought 
of Dove and the rapture of the momentary 
embrace when he had rescued her from the 
Pawnees. His failure meant that she 
would be given to another, and this thought 
was too horrible for contemplation, so he 
determined to release himself in the ortho- 
dox manner or die in the attempt. He 
realized, however, that in his exhausted 
condition, another rush upon the ropes 
would only cause him to faint again and he 
must recover his strength to some extent 
before making another effort. 

When dark came on Hawk stretched 
himself upon the ground. The pain from 
his wounds was terrible, but the ground, 
dampened by the shower, was cool, his ex- 
haustion induced numbness and he slept. 

When he awoke in the morning he felt 
64 


AS A MAN 

much stronger. He heard the hum of 
voices in the distant village, and he knew 
how anxiously his parents and Dove were 
awaiting his triumphant return. The 
thought that he might soon claim the girl 
as his wife, nerved him to a desperate effort. 
He arose to his feet, stretched his arms and 
legs, and then, drawing a full breath, he 
bounded forward with all his strength. 
When he reached the end of the ropes he 
fell to the ground, but he had the satis- 
faction of finding that one rope had been 
torn out. Released from this, and encour- 
aged by the result of the last effort, he re- 
turned to the post, made another rush and 
found himself free. With the blood stream- 
ing from his back he bounded toward the 
village, shouting to proclaim his victory, 
and when he reached his father’s lodge he 

was received with acclamations of joy and 
65 


HAWK: THE YOUNG OSAGE 


pride as a brave warrior of the tribe and a 
Man. His wounds were washed, healing 
lotions were applied to them and he was 
put to bed while his mother prepared for 
him a sumptuous meal to make up for his 
long fast. Before it was cooked, however. 
Dove came shyly to the door of the lodge 
with an earthen vessel containing a savory 
mess prepared by her own hands, and at- 
tracting the attention of his mother, gave 
it to her without a word. No words were 
necessary; the mother understood, and 
when she presented it to Hawk and told 
him who brought it, he almost mortally 
offended his mother by eating Dove’s food 
first, but as his youthful appetite, stimu- 
lated by the long fast, enabled him to do 
justice to that prepared by her also, her 
good humor was restored. 

This act of the girl was equivalent, under 
66 


AS A MAN 

Osage customs, to a public announcement 
of the engagement and left nothing to be 
arranged but the amount of the present to 
be given her father. 

Hawk’s back was still very sore for sev- 
eral days and he spent most of the time in 
bed. His mother bathed the wounds and 
changed the dressings frequently and would 
often stand out of his sight and regard him 
with pride. Dove brought delicacies every 
day and Hawk always ate them. He was 
young and healthy, his blood was pure and 
he had an abundance of nourishing food, 
so that in about a week he began to go about 
the village. He made no effort to conceal 
the scars on his back, for they were regarded 
as badges of courage by all. At the end of 
ten days he had so far recovered that he 
went with his father on a hunting trip and 

on his return visited the medicine-man who 
67 


HAWK: THE YOUNG OSAGE 

presented to him the sacred weapons given 
to every warrior on his initiation into man- 
hood, a spear, a knife, tomahawk and three 
arrows. These he was not to use, but keep 
in his lodge, and they were never to be 
touched by a woman, as this would bring 
bad luck. He gave him also a mystery bag 
made from the skin of a ground-squirrel or 
other small animal. It contained a small 
quantity of red paint, an animal’s tooth, 
some hair from an enemy’s scalp and red 
feathers from the head of a woodpecker, 
but the medicine-man assured him that 
through his incantations he had induced 
a powerful spirit to enter it, which would 
protect him from all disease and the 
weapons of his enemies. This he must keep 
always upon his person and it must be 
buried with him at death to secure his ad- 
mission into the other world. If it should 
68 


AS A MAN 


be touched by a woman the spirit would 
leave and he would be unlucky thereafter. 

The medicine-man asked him if he had 
dreamed during his initiation fast, and be- 
ing told that he had dreamed of killing and 
eating a fat beaver, he informed Hawk that 
the beaver was his tabu, and that he must 
not kill or eat one of these animals until he 
had taken the scalp of an enemy. 


69 


HAWK: THE YOUNG OSAGE 


CHAPTER V 

HIS MARRIAGE 

B eing now a full fledged warrior, 
Hawk was impatient to marry 
Dove. The totem of her mother 
was that of the wolf while his own be- 
longed to the beaver gens or family. 
Among the Osages a child always belonged 
to the totem gens or family of its mother, 
and persons of the same totem might not 
inter-marry. Any violation of this custom, 
or unwritten law of the tribe, was severely 
punished by banishment from the tribe or 
even death. Being of different totem fam- 
ilies, there was no such objection to the 
marriage of Hawk and Dove, and Wolf, 

at his son’s solicitation, had an interview 
70 


HIS MARRIAGE 

with Panther, her father. Their conversa- 
tion was very characteristic of Osage eti- 
quette. 

When Wolf entered his lodge Panther 
gravely motioned him to a seat, then filled 
his pipe, lighted it and after a few whiffs, 
passed it to his visitor, who, after smoking 
a few moments laid it aside and said: “ Is 
my brother well?” Panther replied that 
his health was excellent, and there was 
again silence for several minutes, when 
Wolf said: My son, Chang-ska, who is 
the bravest and most successful hunter of 
his age in the tribe, and has just successfully 
passed through his initiation as a warrior, 
has, in some way, been bewitched by your 
worthless daughter. Dove, and nothing will 
satisfy the fool boy but to marry her. I 
cannot think what he sees in her to attract 

him, for she is ugly, slovenly, of no account 
71 


HAWK: THE YOUNG OSAGE 


and lazy besides. I do not see why he 
should think of her twice, but boys will be 
boys, and in his behalf, I would like to 
know what you are going to ask for 
her.’’ 

To this remarkable statement Panther 
replied: I cannot imagine where you ac- 
quired the cheek to ask me to give my 
beautiful and accomplished daughter to 
that worthless, cowardly son of yours. 
Everybody knows he never brings home 
any game and how he is to support a family 
is more than I can imagine. As to his ever 
becoming a warrior, it is my opinion the 
best thing you can do is to dress him in 
women’s clothes and set him to hoeing corn. 
I could not think of giving my girl to such 
a worthless young man. She is the hand- 
somest girl in the tribe and all the young 

warriors are wild about her. Only yester- 
72 


HIS MARRIAGE 

day a chief offered me a whole lodge full 
of skins for her. She is the light of my 
lodge. When I return from an expedi- 
tion she brings me food and when I have 
eaten she fills and lights my pipe. She 
makes my moccasins and war-bonnets and 
greatly aids her mother in all the household 
duties. No, indeed: you can take your 
cowardly son to another market.” 

To this Wolf responded: “I may have 
been a little hasty in my estimate of your 
daughter; she will do very well, as girls 
go, and you must admit that Hawk kept his 
mother’s lodge well supplied with food 
during my recent absence. Surely you do 
not consider his conduct at the time your 
daughter was captured by the Pawnees as 
lacking in either sense or bravery. At any 
rate, our children are fond of each other 

and it is best they should mate.” 

73 


HAWK: THE YOUNG OSAGE 


The Panther said: “Well, boys do not 
amount to much these days, but I suppose 
Hawk is as good as any of them; however, 
I cannot think of accepting less for my 
daughter than ten buffalo robes, twenty 
deer hides and twice as many skins of 
smaller animals.” 

At this Wolf arose, apparently in great 
disgust. He declared that such a price 
was exorbitant as he could get three prettier 
girls for less. He paused, however, to say 
that as Hawk seemed to have set his heart 
on the girl, he would add to the two robes 
from buffaloes killed by Hawk on the re- 
cent hunt, three of his own and he thought 
they could manage to raise as many as ten 
deer skins in the family. He said, as to 
skins of smaller animals. Hawk’s success as 
a hunter had filled the lodge with them 

and he would be glad to get rid of them, so 
74 


HiS MARRIAGE 

he would concede all that had been asked 
and throw in some for good measure. 

Both parties had intensely enjoyed this 
dialogue. They had known from the first 
how the negotiations would terminate. 
Wolf would not think of offering too small 
a present for the girl and Panther would 
not insist upon asking too much, but this 
was the usual niode of procedure and must 
be followed. Panther, with an appearance 
of ill grace, but really delighted with his 
bargain, agreed to the proposal, provided 
his relatives should give their consent to 
the marriage, and the interview termi- 
nated. 

Separate meetings were soon held in ac- 
cordance with custom, by the immediate 
relatives of both parties, at which much 
venison was eaten and many pipes smoked, 

and they resulted, as it was known before- 
75 


HAWK: THE YOUNG OSAGE 

hand they would, in an agreement for the 
marriage. 

The next day the robes and skins agreed 
upon were deposited at the door of Pan- 
ther’s lodge, and being taken in, no other 
ceremony was necessary. That evening 
Hawk removed with all his belongings to 
the lodge of Panther, which would there- 
after be his home until one or more chil- 
dren should be born to Dove when they 
might establish a lodge for themselves. 
The son-in-law always took up his abode 
in the lodge of his wife’s parents, but his 
conduct in their home must be very differ- 
ent from that in the lodge of his parents. 
While he might speak to his father-in-law 
freely outside of the lodge, while on the 
hunt or war-path, he must never address 
him in the lodge, nor could he on any ac- 
count speak to his wife’s mother. He must 
76 


HIS MARRIAGE 


cover his head or turn his face away when 
in her presence, and if he desired to ask her 
a question, he must say to his wife: “Ask 
your mother so and so,” and she would 
reply: “Tell your husband thus.” 

In his own home Hawk had been upon 
the most intimate terms with his mother 
and all the members of the family, but he 
understood so well that Osage etiquette 
would not permit him to address his 
mother-in-law that he fell into the new con- 
ditions without making any serious mis- 
takes. He made frequent visits, however, 
to his father’s lodge where he was under 
less restraint. 

After his marriage Hawk employed his 
time industriously in hunting, to assist Pan- 
ther in the support of his family and to 
secure a supply of robes and skins for cloth- 
ing and bedding for himself and Dove, 
77 


HAWK: THE YOUNG OSAGE 

while his wife continued to assist her 
mother. She, however, accompanied 
Hawk on several large hunting parties, 
and on one of these they visited the spot 
where Dove had been captured by the 
Pawnees. Here Dove asked him what he 
would have done if she had been killed. 
Hawk promptly assured her that his life 
would have been blasted, but she saucily 
told him she was sure he would have found 
another girl in a week. Hawk’s only reply 
to this was to hold her longer and closer 
than when he had cut her bonds, and this 
seemed entirely satisfactory to Dove. 


78 


THE WAR-PATH 


CHAPTER VI 

THE WAR-PATH 

A bout a year after Hawk’s mar- 
riage a small hunting party of 
Osages was ambushed by a large 
band of Pawnee warriors and all but one 
of the Osages were killed and scalped. The 
one fortunate man happened at the time to 
be at some distance from camp. He con- 
cealed himself until the Pawnees had left 
the vicinity and then made his way to the 
village. Great was the grief and rage of 
the Osages when he had reported the dis- 
aster. Howls and lamentations filled the 
air day and night. The wives and mothers 
of the victims cut off their hair and gashed 

their breasts, arms and legs with knives, 
79 


HAWK: THE YOUNG OSAGE 

while they incessantly called upon the war- 
riors to avenge these murders. 

I-o-ka-du-za, the Whirlwind, a renowned 
chief of the Osages, having obtained per- 
mission from the Council, soon called for 
volunteers to take the war-path against the 
Pawnees, and was offered the services of 
every able-bodied warrior in the tribe. 
This was not in accordance with his plan, 
however, which was to take a small party 
of the very best men and by marching rap- 
idly at night, while lying concealed during 
the day, try to reach the vicinity of the 
Pawnee village without being discovered; 
then, still remaining concealed, wait for an 
opportunity to fall upon a small party of 
the enemy and secure their scalps and per- 
haps some prisoners for the torture. 

Neither Indian justice nor Indian venge- 
ance required that punishment should 
80 


THE WAR-PATH 


fall upon the individuals who had com- 
mitted the offense. Their ends would be sat- 
isfied by killing an equal or greater number 
of the tribe to which the murderers be- 
longed. I-o-ka-du-za therefore selected 
twenty of the best of the volunteers and, in 
addition, four young men who had not be- 
fore been upon the war-path, intending to 
give the latter some training in actual war. 
Among the young men was Hawk. He had 
a reputation for bravery and coolness in the 
hunt and was anxious to become a warrior, 
so Whirlwind thought he could be relied 
upon and made him one of the party. 

Dove looked very sober when her hus- 
band told her he was to go on the war-path 
against their ancient enemies, the Pawnees, 
and her eyes filled with tears, but she was 
an Indian woman and was proud that 

Hawk had been thought worthy of the 
81 


HAWK: THE YOUNG OSAGE 

honor among so many volunteers, so she 
choked back her tears and said never a 
word by way of objection or remonstrance. 
She busied herself in preparing food for 
his journey and in making him two extra 
pairs of moccasins, for as the Indians then 
had no ponies, the march must be made on 
foot and more than one pair would be worn 
out before his return. She put in his bag 
also some pieces of dressed elk skin, some 
sinew thread and a bone awl that he might 
repair his moccasins if necessary. His pro- 
visions were for the most part, parched corn 
and dried buffalo meat or “ jerk,” for as 
they were to lie concealed in the daytime 
they could not hunt. She prepared enough 
cooked food for one or two meals. 

During the day which intervened be- 
tween the selection and departure of the 

party, Hawk prepared his weapons. He 
82 


THE WAR-PATH 

selected his best bow, carefully examined 
the string to see that it had not become 
frayed or worn, and put some extra flint 
arrow poiats in his bag. He inspected 
every arrow before placing it in his quiver, 
to see that it was perfectly straight and well 
feathered and that the flint point was sharp 
and securely fastened on, and he put into 
his bag also some extra sinew and his glue- 
stick that he might repair any damage to 
his arrows, also his fire-sticks, pipe and 
tobacco. Under his breech-cloth he 
fastened the mystery bag given him by the 
medicine-man at the time of his admission 
to the ranks of the warriors, for to go with- 
out it was to invite bad luck. 

Although an Osage and burning to 
avenge the death of his tribal brothers, it 
must be admitted that Hawk felt a little 

nervous at the prospect of meeting the re- 
83 


HAWK; THE YOUNG OSAGE 

doubtable Pawnee warriors in battle. A 
part of this feeling was due to the separa- 
tion from Dove and a bright-eyed little boy, 
who had been born to them a few weeks 
before and of whom he was very proud. 
The thought would force itself upon his 
mind that he might never see them again, 
but whatever may have been his thoughts 
or apprehensions, he kept them to himself 
and went about his preparations without 
the least appearance of nervousness, and 
none could have concluded from his actions 
that going upon the war-path was not a 
frequent occurrence with him. 

The preparations of the warriors were 
made very quietly and without the least 
apparent stir from the ordinary appearance 
of the village, for Pawnee spies might be 
lurking about and any unusual activity 

might arouse their suspicions. At the usual 
84 


THE WAR-PATH 


hour in the evening all the villagers retired 
to their lodges as if for the night, but a 
little later the war party stole out one by 
one, going in different directions to meet 
at a rendezvous near the outskirts of the 
village from which the actual start was to 
be made. 

All the country lying between the Osage 
and Pawnee villages was well known to 
nearly every member of the party and they 
could find their way in the dark as well as 
in the daytime, but to conceal their num- 
bers, if any Pawnee scout should discover 
their trail, they marched from the first in 
single file, each stepping in the tracks of 
his file leader as nearly as possible. A few 
miles out they reached a small stream which 
came down from the direction of the Paw- 
nee country, and entering it at a stony place 

which would show no trace of their foot- 
85 


HAWK: THE YOUNG OSAGE 

steps, they waded up this for several miles. 
On leaving it they selected the highest and 
driest ridges for their route, still proceed- 
ing in single file. 

They were all in light marching order, 
being clothed only in breech-cloth and moc- 
casins, and had no baggage except their 
weapons and a small quantity of food. 
Each was armed with a flint knife, a stone 
tomahawk, a short spear, and each carried 
his bow and arrows in a skin case hung at 
his back. 

They marched rapidly and just as the 
first faint streaks of coming day began to 
show in the east, they reached another 
stream and after wading up it for a quarter 
of a mile, left it with great care and entered 
a tangled thicket of wild grapevines, crab- 
apple trees, wild plums and hazel brush. 

They crawled far into this cover and after 
86 


THE WAR-PATH 


each had eaten his breakfast and taken a 
drink from the small stream, guards were 
posted near the entrance of the tangle and 
all the others lay down to sleep. 

The day passed without alarm, and a 
little after dusk, having eaten again of their 
scanty rations, they stole silently from the 
hiding-place and continued their march. 
Before dawn the next morning the party 
entered a similar thicket. Again guards 
were posted and the others slept. 

This day Hawk was one of the sentries. 
His post was on the west side of the thicket, 
and he was instructed to station himself as 
nearly as he could to the edge of the under- 
growth without danger of discovery, that 
he might see any one who should approach. 
When he reached his post he discovered 
that a grove of large trees without much 
growth of underbrush stretched toward the 
87 


HAWK: THE YOUNG OSAGE 

west as far as he could see. There was a 
shallow ravine just inside the thicket run- 
ning parallel with its edge for some distance 
and he at once selected this for his place of 
concealment and observation. When stand- 
ing at his full height his head came just 
above its margin and he could see a long 
distance into the wood without danger of 
exposing his presence, even to a watchful 
foe. 

He remained entirely silent and nearly 
motionless and had been at his post for more 
than an hour, when his trained eye caught 
a movement in the distant forest. The ob- 
ject was at first not approaching him but 
moving toward the south and across the 
line of his vision, and in the dim distance 
he could not make out whether it was a man 
or an animal. At length it turned directly 

toward him and as it came into the more 
88 


THE WAR-PATH 

open woods he saw that it was an Indian, 
who seemed wholly unconscious of any dan- 
ger, moving along with a free stride and 
head erect and stopping from time to time 
to gaze around as though in search of game. 
On nearing the edge of the thicket, he 
stopped and looked for some moments into 
its depths, and Hawk thought at first he 
must have made some slight noise which 
had attracted the hunter’s attention; but 
after gazing a short time in his direction he 
straightened up and looked back into the 
woods. 

As soon as he observed that the stranger 
was approaching him. Hawk took a posi- 
tion behind a small bush which stood on 
the bank of the ravine, and which, while it 
entirely concealed him, allowed him to look 
directly through it. He knew at once from 
the form of the scalp lock and the feather 
89 


HAWK: THE YOUNG OSAGE 


which adorned it, that the intruder was a 
Pawnee, one of the hated tribe whose scalps 
were the object of the expedition, and the 
feather indicated that the wearer was a war- 
rior of some prominence. The Indian was 
within bow-shot and Hawk had his bow in 
his hand and an arrow against the string 
from the time the Pawnee had begun to 
approach the thicket. He might shoot him, 
perhaps, but through the bushes the arrow 
might be deflected and but slightly wound 
him, when he would, of course, give the 
alarm to his comrades, who might be near, 
so Hawk waited for a more favorable op- 
portunity. 

Soon the Pawnee began to move along 
the edge of the thicket, peering in from 
time to time and occasionally looking 
toward the open wood beyond. Hawk still 

keeping in the ravine and moving with the 
90 


THE WAR-PATH 

greatest caution, kept parallel with him, 
raising his head occasionally when a clump 
of bushes gave him an opportunity. He 
did a good deal of thinking in a short time. 
This was the first time in his life he had 
been actually near a foe, and he realized 
that not only might his own life depend 
upon the outcome of this adventure, but 
his reputation as a warrior was likely to be 
made or marred within a few minutes. 
Not only this, but the success or failure of 
the Osage war-party depended much upon 
his discretion in the present crisis. The 
hunter must not be permitted to enter the 
thicket to look for game as it appeared he 
was about to do, for the chances were that 
he would stumble upon the sleeping Osages 
or one of the other guards and at once es- 
cape and give the alarm. Hawk wished, 

however, that he might come far enough 
91 


HAWK: THE YOUNG OSAGE 

within the thicket to give him a sure shot 
without the danger of his fall being ob- 
served by any who might chance to be in 
the open wood. 

While Hawk was trying to study up 
some plan to induce him to enter, the 
hunter solved the problem himself. He 
stopped quite still for a few minutes and 
then gave the call of a wild-turkey, repeat- 
ing it twice with a short pause between. 
This he did again in a few minutes, and 
Hawk, whose hunting experience enabled 
him to imitate perfectly the cry or call of 
any beast or bird in the locality, answered 
the same in a very low tone which made 
the sound seem to come from some distance 
within the thicket. The Pawnee peered 
into the bushes and then repeated the call, 
which Hawk again answered, and then the 

hunter began to enter the thicket cautiously 
92 


THE WAR-PATH 


so as not to disturb the bird which he 
wanted for his supper. Hawk now stepped 
behind a clump of willows that grew in the 
bottom of the ravine. The Pawnee made 
no noise and the Osage would not have been 
sure of his approach if he had not been 
able to see him through the branches. As 
the hunter slowly neared him, Hawk ad- 
justed his arrow carefully upon the string 
and drew it half-way to the head, and was 
surprised to find that his nerves were en- 
tirely steady. 

The Pawnee finally reached the brink of 
the ravine, looked cautiously round for the 
game which he thought must be near, and 
Hawk feared that he would be discovered 
notwithstanding the willows, but just then 
a real turkey, which was in the open woods 
and had been attracted by the calls, an- 
swered from the edge of the thicket imme- 
93 


HAWK: THE YOUNG OSAGE 


diately behind the hunter, who, turning 
slowly round to get a shot at the bird, ex- 
posed his broafd and naked back to the 
Osage. Hawk’s arrow was immediately 
drawn to the head and discharged, and the 
aim was so true that it passed directly 
through the heart of the Pawnee, who 
never uttered a sound but made a slight 
spring into the air and then fell backwards 
into the ravine. Hawk, to make sure of his 
death, sprang to his side and sunk his toma- 
hawk into his head. He now peered care- 
fully over the bank of the ravine into the 
wood, and finding that all remained quiet, 
he grasped the dead hunter by the 
scalp-lock, with a quick motion of his 
knife cut through the skin and at the 
same time wrenched the scalp from his 
head. 

This was the proudest moment of 
94 



PAWNEE 






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THE WAR-PATH 

Hawk’s life. He had taken the scalp of 
an enemy and was now indeed a warrior. 
He could scarcely refrain from giving the 
scalp yell of the Osages, but recollecting 
in time the dangerous situation of his party 
now in the enemy’s country, he restrained 
himself and considered what he should do 
next. It was important that the dead body 
should be concealed lest some Pawnee 
hunter should discover it and give the 
alarm, and yet, unaided, he hardly knew 
how to dispose of it so as to leave no sign. 
Just then he heard from further in the 
thicket the call of the female quail, the 
signal agreed upon for communication 
with his party, which he at once answered 
with the call of the Bob White, and in a 
few minutes one of the Osages appeared 
upon the bank of the ravine near him. 

Hawk pointed to the dead Pawnee and 
95 


HAWK: THE YOUNG OSAGE 


proudly held up the reeking scalp, and 
when his comrade had clambered down be- 
side him, he related the whole adventure 
in a few whispered words and asked him 
how they should dispose of the body. The 
other told him that a few yards back he 
had crossed a small dry hollow full of loose 
stones which would answer admirably for 
a place of concealment. They at once car- 
ried the body to the place, covered it care- 
fully and then returning to the ravine, 
scattered dry leaves and sticks over the 
blood so that nothing indicated there had 
been a tragedy. They even followed back 
upon the trail of the Pawnee to the edge 
of the thicket, obliterating all traces of his 
footsteps. 

Hawk, now relieved by his comrade, 
who had been sent to take his place as 

guard, returned at once to the chief and the 
96 


THE WAR-PATH 


party concealed in the depths of the 
thicket, taking with him, of course, the 
scalp, weapons and ornaments of the 
Pawnee. 


97 


HAWK: THE YOUNG OSAGE 


CHAPTER VII 

THE PAWNEES 

W hirlwind was greatly 
pleased when Hawk exhibited 
the scalp and weapons of the 
dead Pawnee. He required him to relate 
fully the whole adventure and then praised 
him highly for his bravery and skill in the 
encounter, and promised him that upon 
their return to the village a scalp dance 
should be celebrated in his honor. These 
praises were very sweet to Hawk as a young 
warrior and he wished that Dove could at 
once know of his success. 

The presence of the Pawnee in the neigh- 
borhood indicated to Whirlwind that there 

might be others, and perhaps a consider- 
98 


THE PAWNEES 


able party. He therefore at once sent all 
the members of his party to thoroughly ex- 
plore the thicket and to observe from its 
edge all the surrounding country, and ar- 
ranged signals for use in the event an 
enemy should be discovered. 

Hawk remained with the chief where the 
party had first stopped, but the afternoon 
passed without alarm. When it was nearly 
dark. Whirlwind gave the signal which 
called in all the Osages except the guards. 
When quite dark the guards were called 
also, food was eaten and the whole party 
proceeded to the edge of the thicket where 
the Pawnee had entered. There they 
halted and scouts were sent out in the direc- 
tion from which he had approached to as- 
certain, if possible, how many there were 
of the enemy, and if the failure of the 

hunter to return had apparently aroused 
99 


HAWK: THE YOUNG OSAGE 

any suspicion of the presence of the Osages 
in the vicinity. 

The recent exploit of Hawk had given 
him such prominence that he was one of 
the scouts detailed for this duty, there be- 
ing four others. They proceeded together 
a short distance and then two bore off to 
the left and two to the right, leaving Hawk, 
who kept on toward the point where he had 
first seen the Pawnee. His progress was 
slow, as he was obliged to move very care- 
fully to avoid making a noise in the dark- 
ness. He kept his course by observing the 
stars and a new moon which hung low in 
the west, but while this light aided his 
movements it might also reveal his presence 
if any enemies should be in the neighbor- 
hood, and he therefore kept in the shadow 
as far as possible. He had thus proceeded 
about two miles without observing any- 
100 


THE PAWNEES 


thing suspicious, and had about concluded 
to return to the party, when his nostrils 
caught a faint smell of smoke from a direc- 
tion nearly on his right. Moving with still 
greater caution, he followed up the scent 
until finally reaching the summit of a low 
bluff which skirted the valley of a small 
stream, he saw at some distance, the faint 
glimmer of a fire. Keeping a little back 
from the edge of the valley, for fear he 
might stumble upon a camp guard, he pro- 
ceeded in the direction of the fire and when 
about opposite he again approached the 
bluff. The fire was plainly visible from 
this point, but in a moment he noticed a 
moving object between himself and the 
light which he at once concluded was a 
guard coming in his direction. Dropping 
silently to the ground, he stretched himself 

at full length beside a fallen tree and in a 
101 


HAWK: THE YOUNG OSAGE 


few moments an Indian passed so near he 
could have touched him. Hawk scarcely 
breathed until the slight sounds made by the 
scout had died away in the distance, and 
then he proceeded to a point on the bluff 
where he could plainly see the camp-fire a 
few rods from its base, and around it a 
group of Indians whom he at once recog- 
nized as Pawnees from the mode of wear- 
ing the hair. He was able to count ten of 
the foes and while he waited two more 
joined them. These he conjectured to be 
scouts of whom one had passed so close 
to him a few moments before. It seemed 
to be a hunting party, and that they had 
been successful was evident from the car- 
cass of a deer lying near the fire from 
which the hunters now and then cut pieces 
of meat to roast upon the coals and eat. 

This made Hawk’s mouth water, for he 
102 


THE PAWNEES 


had eaten nothing for two days except a 
small amount of parched corn and dried 
meat. 

He remained in his position on the bluff 
for about two hours, during which time no 
more Indians joined the party in camp, but 
several times one or more of them looked 
toward the direction in which he had killed 
the hunter as if expecting some one. He 
therefore concluded that his victim had 
been one of the party, but if so, his failure 
to return did not seem to cause any alarm. 

As he continued to watch, several of the 
party drew their robes around them and 
laid down by the fire, while three, with 
their weapons, started off in different direc- 
tions, from which he concluded they were 
camp guards. One of these came directly 
toward him, and deciding he had learned 

all he could. Hawk drew carefully back 
103 


HAWK: THE YOUNG OSAGE 

until he was sure that he was beyond hear- 
ing, then made off at all speed to join 
Whirlwind and his party. As he neared 
the thicket he gave three hoots of an owl, 
the signal which had been agreed upon, 
and was answered at once by a guard who 
was close beside him. When he reached 
the chief, he found all the rest of the party 
with him, the other scouts having returned 
without making any discovery. 

On hearing Hawk’s report. Whirlwind 
ordered him to guide them at once to the 
camp he had discovered, and they reached 
the immediate vicinity just before dawn. 

As Hawk had observed the direction in 
which the guards left the camp, the Osages 
were enabled, by making a slight detour, 
to approach without attracting the atten- 
tion of these, and the hunters were in their 

soundest slumber when the Osages, sound- 
104 


THE PAWNEES 

ing their war-whoop, dashed in among 
them. The surprise was complete. Five 
Pawnees were killed outright in the on- 
slaught and one rendered unconscious by a 
blow from Hawk’s tomahawk, while three 
who were slightly wounded and the three 
guards made their escape in the darkness 
of the early dawn. 

The Pawnee, over whom Hawk was still 
standing with his tomahawk raised, began 
to recover consciousness. Whirlwind was 
tempted to carry him as a prisoner to the 
Osage village that he might be put to the 
torture, but reflecting that the Pawnees who 
had escaped would soon reach their village, 
which was but a few miles distant, and that 
a large party would at once return, decided 
that it would be folly to hamper their flight 
with a prisoner and reluctantly gave Hawk 

a signal to dispatch him, which he did and 
105 


HAWK: THE YOUNG OSAGE 

removing the scalp placed it, with that of 
the other Pawnee, in his belt. 

The party now made a hasty meal from 
the flesh of the deer lying beside the camp- 
fire, and without any attempt to conceal 
their trail, started directly for the Osage 
village. They travelled at the utmost speed 
day and night, and reached home in safety, 
although the scouts who had marched some 
distance in the rear, reported that they had 
been followed by a large force of Pawnees 
who had nearly overtaken them and had 
only desisted from pursuit when the village 
was in sight. 

A large number of Osage warriors at 
once started out to give them battle, but 
they soon found from the trail that they 
had turned about and were making all 
speed back to their own territory. 

When the party of Whirlwind entered 
106 


THE PAWNEES 

the village it was welcomed by nearly every 
inhabitant large enough to walk, and when 
the villagers saw that none were missing or 
seriously wounded, and that they had sev- 
eral scalps, the air rang with the shouts of 
joy and victory. Among them none were 
more joyful and elated than Dove, and 
when she saw two scalps hanging at Hawk’s 
belt, she was sure that it was the happiest 
day of her life. Not only was he safely 
back, but he had killed two of the hated 
Pawnees, and thus was entitled to more 
honor than even the chief who had com- 
mand of the party. 

Hawk flashed upon his wife one glance 
of love, allowed his eyes to rest for a mo- 
ment upon the baby whose cradle she car- 
ried at her back, and then made no further 
sign of their presence. To have shown any 

emotion in public would not have been in 
107 


HAWK: THE YOUNG OSAGE 

keeping with his dignity at any time, but 
now that he was a successful warrior and 
had shown bravery in an actual contest with 
the enemy, an exhibition of any human 
emotion would be very much out of place. 
He held his head high, stepped proudly 
and marched to the Council House with 
the other members of the party, without 
looking to the right or the left, while Dove 
went at once to her mother’s lodge to pre- 
pare food for him. 

As soon as the warriors dispersed, Hawk 
went immediately but slowly to his lodge. 
Once inside, however, his manner changed. 
He caught Dove in his arms and embraced 
her fondly and then took up the cradle- 
board and looked long and earnestly at his 
baby boy. 

While the Osages were usually stoical 

and indifferent in the presence of others, 
108 


THE PAWNEES 


they were kind and affectionate in the pri- 
vacy of their homes, and Hawk held both 
wife and baby in a long embrace. 

After a while, his mother-in-law said: 
“ Dove, ask your husband what he would 
like to have for supper; he must be hungry 
after his long march.” Without waiting 
for the question to be repeated by his wife. 
Hawk said: “Tell your mother I would 
like some succotash and broiled venison, if 
it is convenient. I am so glad to get home 
and see you and the baby that I forgot it, 
but I am nearly starved and about tired to 
death.” 

Dove now assisted her mother to prepare 
the meal and when it was nearly ready she 
brought a large gourd full of water from 
a spring in the hillside near by. 

While the supper was cooking Hawk lay 

down upon a couch of dressed buffalo skins 
109 


HAWK: THE YOUNG OSAGE 

near the side of the lodge and began to play 
with his boy who was now old enough to 
take some notice. The game was the old 
one still played by all fathers, whether civ- 
ilized or barbarous. He would conceal his 
face behind part of a robe then suddenly 
withdrawing it, say “boo!” The boy’s 
round red face would dimple with smiles, 
his little beady black eyes would sparkle 
with fun and Hawk was as proud of him 
as any white father could be of a fine 
son. 

Soon, however. Dove announced that 
supper was ready. No table was set and 
there was no display of dishes, indeed, to 
be truthful, I must tell you that Hawk did 
not even wash his face and hands; he 
merely laid the cradle on one side and sat 
on the edge of the couch. No one ate with 

him : his father-in-law was absent, and eti- 
110 


THE PAWNEES 

quette would not permit women to eat with 
warriors. 

The meal began with a large bowl of 
succotash, made by boiling meat, dried 
corn, beans and choke-cherries together in 
an earthen vessel. The bowl was also of 
clay and had been made by Dove, who was 
an expert potter, as were all the women. It 
contained more than a quart of succotash 
and, as there had been a liberal quantity of 
marrow cooked with it, one would have 
thought it sufficient for a whole meal. 
Hawk ate with a large spoon made from 
a buffalo horn, and when he began to scrape 
the bottom of the bowl, Dove brought him, 
on a piece of bark, which I am afraid was 
not very clean, a large slice of venison she 
had broiled on a fire in the center of the 
lodge. Hawk had neither knife nor fork, 

but as he would not have known how to use 
111 


HAWK; THE YOUNG OSAGE 

them, he did not miss them. He took the 
slice of venison in his hands, and although 
it burned his fingers, he continued to tear 
and eat it with great satisfaction while 
Dove broiled another as large as the first. 
When this was finished she brought him a 
third, arid when this also disappeared, with 
a grunt of satisfaction he admitted that he 
had enough. The meal he had eaten would 
have seemed to us enough for a whole fam- 
ily, but he had been without food for two 
or three days while marching, and besides, 
the Indians were great eaters when food 
was in plenty, although they could go a long 
time without it when necessary. 

Dove now filled his stone pipe with a 
mixture of red willow bark and tobacco, 
placed a lighted coal on top and the stem 
between his lips. Hawk did not forget to 

blow the smoke first toward the sky, the 
112 


THE PAWNEES 

earth and the four quarters of the heavens 
in acknowledgment of the good services 
of his mystery bag in preserving him and 
gaining him the victory in the recent ex- 
pedition. He smoked in the greatest con- 
tent and Dove filled and lighted the pipe 
a second time. When this was finished he 
laid it down while he thought for a few 
moments of the happiness that was his. He 
was yet a very young man but he had an 
accomplished and beautiful wife, the finest 
baby in the tribe, and now that he had dis- 
tinguished himself on this expedition, he 
would have a scalp dance in his honor and 
would be a noted warrior of the tribe. He 
was tired and he felt so contented that he 
wanted to sleep, so he stretched himself out 
on the couch and took a long nap. 

Dove sat very still while he slept, but 

she removed the baby’s cradle to the other 
113 


HAWK: THE YOUNG OSAGE 

side of the lodge that it might not disturb 
him if it should awake. While she sat there 
she thought, too, of the blessings of her lot. 
She had a handsome baby of whom she was 
very proud, but this was nothing to her 
pride in her brave and stalwart husband. 
She sat there gazing with the fondest af- 
fection at his sleeping face, but at length 
her eyes fell upon the two bloody scalps at 
his belt, and for a moment she shuddered 
as she thought how different the home com- 
ing of the war-party would have been for 
her had a Pawnee warrior carried Hawk’s 
scalp to his village, but she choked back 
such thoughts as unworthy the wife of such 
a valiant and successful warrior, and then 
she thought long and pleasantly of the 
honorable position he would now occupy in 
the tribe, and the reflected honor which 

would be hers as his wife, and of the airs 
114 


THE PAWNEES 

she would put on in the presence of the 
wives of warriors who had not yet taken 
scalps. 

She was nearly dying to learn all about 
the expedition, but she was too well raised, 
and knew the duties of an Indian wife too 
well to ask her husband any questions until 
he should be ready to tell her about it. 

Once or twice Hawk started and mut- 
tered in his sleep, and once his hand 
grasped the knife in his belt. The enor- 
mous meal he had eaten was probably caus- 
ing him to dream of his recent adventures, 
but Dove thought his medicine or mystery 
spirit was talking to him and kept very still, 
although she felt awed in its presence and 
turned her head away. 

At length Hawk became fully awake and 
sat up. He raised the scalps and told Dove 

that he wanted her to prepare a couple of 
115 


HAWK: THE YOUNG OSAGE 

willow hoops on which to stretch them 
after his return from the Council that eve- 
ning, so that they might be hung up as 
trophies to ornament the new lodge which 
he hoped soon to establish for themselves. 

As he held up the scalp of the Pawnee he 
had killed in the thicket, which he knew by 
the eagle’s feather braided in it, he looked 
at it gravely for a moment and then said: 

My dear, what if my arrow had struck a 
twig and missed that fellow; I would not 
be here talking to you.” Dove shuddered, 
but she sat up very straight with great in- 
terest, for she knew the story she had been 
longing to hear was coming. She lighted 
another pipe and coaxingly asked him to 
tell her all about it. 

While Hawk smoked he related his watch 
in the thicket, the approach of the Pawnee 

through the open woods, his peering into 
116 


THE PAWNEES 


the thicket, his turkey call, the response by 
himself and the appearance of the real 
turkey at the critical time. How, when the 
broad back of the hunter was exposed, he 
sent his arrow through it with such force 
that it came out on the other side of the 
body, and, finally, how he had scalped and 
disposed of the body. Dove clasped her 
hands breathlessly while the Pawnee was 
peering into the thicket, gave a breath of 
relief when the real turkey was reached and 
shouted so loud as to wake the baby when 
the arrow struck the Pawnee. 

At the close of the narrative she said very 
gravely: “ Did you have your mystery bag 
with you? ” Hawk replied that he had, of 
course, and it was tied to his belt at the 
back under his breech-cloth. Then she 
said: “ Mr. Hawk, you may say what you 

please, but I shall always believe the mys- 
117 


HAWK: THE YOUNG OSAGE 

tery spirit in that bag brought that turkey 
to the edge of the thicket.” 

She then asked about the other scalp and 
Hawk told her of the search for the enemy’s 
camp, his discovering it by the smell of the 
smoke, the nearness of discovery when he 
lay beside the log, how he learned the num- 
bers of the enemy and then guided his party 
to their camp, of the attack and his extra 
luck in securing the second scalp, the haste 
with which they had returned followed by 
the enraged Pawnees, and the promise of 
the chief that a scalp dance should be given 
in his honor. 

Dove lost her interest somewhat at this 
point, for she began to think over her scanty 
stock of jewels and meager wardrobe and 
to decide what she would wear on the great 
occasion. 

The village crier had announced before 
118 


THE PAWNEES 

that there would be a meeting of the Coun- 
cil at dark, and as the shades of evening 
were beginning to fall Hawk removed some 
of the stains of travel, put on clean clothing, 
and with his robe around him, moved 
sedately to the Council House. 


119 


HAWK: THE YOUNG OSAGE 


CHAPTER VIII 

THE SCALP DANCE 

W HEN Hawk arrived at the 
Council House he found most 
of the warriors already assem- 
bled, and a number were there from the 
other villages of the tribe. They were 
seated in concentric circles around a large 
fire which had been built in the center, and 
the chiefs were in a group at one side. 
While a few were chatting with each other, 
the most were gravely smoking. All being 
assembled, the oldest warrior present called 
to order by rapping sharply with his toma- 
hawk on one of the posts. He stated that 
the object of the meeting was to fix the time 

and the details for a scalp dance to be given 
120 


THE SCALP DANCE 

in honor of the successful war-party which 
had just returned from an expedition 
against the Pawnees, and to determine, 
who, if any, of the party were entitled to 
any special honors on the occasion. 

Whirlwind, who had been in command 
of the party, now arose. He stated that 
every warrior of the party had conducted 
himself as an Osage, and all were entitled 
to honor, but here was one young man who 
had never before been upon the war-path, 
whose actions had been conspicuous for 
bravery and whose coolness and judgment 
had contributed, perhaps, more than any- 
thing else, to the success of the expedition. 
The young man was present and he would 
ask him to relate his part in the campaign. 

This was a proud moment for the young 
Osage. His father was present, also his 

father-in-law, and all the leading warriors 
121 


HAWK: THE YOUNG OSAGE 


of the tribe. He arose in some embarrass- 
ment, and, recognizing his youth, addressed 
the assemblage as “ My fathers ; ” but his 
embarrassment soon left him as he rapidly 
and graphically related the incidents of his 
encounter with the Pawnee in the thicket. 
He described the approach of the hunter 
to the place where he was on guard; his 
own concealment in the small ravine; his 
close watch of the approaching enemy; the 
hunter’s turkey-call and his own reply; the 
moment of suspense while the warrior stood 
upon the brink of the ravine, and, finally, 
the lucky appearance of the real turkey, 
which gave him the opportunity for a sure 
shot. He passed lightly over his subsequent 
scout, the discovery of the Pawnee’s camp, 
and the surprise and final conflict, but held 
up his two scalps as attesting his own con- 
duct. 


122 


THE SCALP DANCE 


As Hawk sat down there were a number 
of grunts of approval from the warriors, 
and before the Council adjourned it was 
ordered that a scalp dance in honor of the 
recent victory should be celebrated on the 
next night but one and continued for two 
nights; the dancers for the first evening to 
be confined to members of the recent war- 
party with their female relatives, the sec- 
ond night all warriors who had during the 
past year killed an enemy should have a 
right to take part. It was further ordered, 
that on account of the conspicuous bravery 
and coolness of Hawk as a young warrior, 
and the fact that he alone of all the party 
had taken two scalps, he should occupy the 
place of honor in the dance, should have 
the privilege of painting his scalps and 
weapons red for the occasion and wear in' 

his scalp-lock a hawk’s feather with two 
123 


HAWK: THE YOUNG OSAGE 

notches cut in it to represent the two scalps. 
It was also determined that he should there- 
after have the right to wear his hair in war- 
rior fashion. 

The Osages had strange customs in re- 
gard to wearing the hair. Until a man had 
taken a scalp he wore his hair in the fashion 
of most of the tribes, long, parted in the 
middle and hanging down his back, or with 
the side locks brought forward in front of 
the shoulders; but after taking a scalp the 
hair was trimmed close to the head, except 
a strip about two inches wide from the fore- 
head to the top of the head, left about two 
inches long, to stand up like a brush, and 
except the scalp-lock, which was left long 
to be braided and hang down behind. The 
scalp-lock was about four inches in diam- 
eter at the crown of the head. 

Hawk spent nearly, all the next day pre- 
124 


THE SCALP DANCE 

paring his clothing and decorations for the 
great event. His father and Panther left 
before daylight on a joint hunt to provide 
meat for the guests they might expect from 
the neighboring Osage villages, but before 
they started each made him a present. His 
father gave him a necklace of bear claws 
from animals he had killed in his youth. In 
front it had a large pendant of turquoise 
highly polished which he had obtained 
many years before in a battle with a tribe 
far to the southwest, where such material 
was sometimes found and was greatly 
prized for making ornaments. Panther’s 
present was his most cherished article of 
jewelry. Many years before, a number of 
the Siouan tribes had confederated for the 
purpose of invading the territory of the 
Algonquins east of the Mississippi River, 

and Panther had been of the invading force. 

125 


HAWK: THE YOUNG OSAGE 


A number of battles were fought in some 
of which the Sioux were victorious, but 
finally, after losing many of their warriors, 
they had been compelled to retreat to their 
own country, the Winnebagoes alone main- 
taining themselves in the territory they had 
conquered. In one of these encounters 
Panther had the good fortune to kill an 
enemy who was wearing on his arm a broad 
bracelet of polished copper, which, of 
course, fell to him as spoils. He had ever 
since cherished it as the apple of his eye and 
its possession had given him a reputation 
as one of the richest men in the tribe. That 
he now gave it to Hawk was the highest 
proof of how pleased he was with his con- 
duct. 

Dove was so pleased at the sight of these 
presents that she danced with joy and 

brought out her own surprise, which was a 
126 


THE SCALP DANCE 

pair of moccasins she had made for Hawk 
during his recent absence. They were sim- 
ply covered with ornaments of colored 
quills and she had sewed strips of fur in 
each seam. She told her husband that he 
would not only be the bravest and hand- 
somest but the best-dressed man at the 
dance. 

As soon as Hawk had finished his morn- 
ing meal he took his seat upon a stump in 
front of the tipi. Dove stood beside him 
with some dry willow sticks which one 
by one she placed in the fire until the 
end was a glowing coal, and with these she 
proceeded to cut his hair. She would 
gather up a bunch of hair as close to the 
scalp as she could and with the live coal on 
the end of the stick burn it off, proceeding 
thus with lock after lock until both sides 

were trimmed close to the scalp and very 
127 


HAWK: THE YOUNG OSAGE 

evenly too. In the center, from his fore- 
head to the top of his head, the hair on the 
strip about two inches wide was left some 
two inches long and it stood up like a brush. 
In a circle on top of his head, about five 
inches in diameter, she left the hair undis- 
turbed and braided it into a scalp lock to 
hang down behind, inserting the hawk’s 
feather with two notches in it. 

When the hair dressing was completed 
she made Hawk put on his new moccasins, 
the bracelet and necklace and take his 
weapons and strut around the lodge for her 
admiration. 

The night before, while her husband at- 
tended the Council meeting. Dove had 
made a couple of willow hoops about four 
inches in diameter, and over these she now 
stretched the two Pawnee scalps and rubbed 

the flesh side of them with red ochre. That 
128 


THE SCALP DANCE 


morning she had procured two willow 
branches about six feet long and an inch 
thick at the larger end. From these she 
now peeled the bark and taking from its 
hiding place a copper spear head, which 
her father had obtained at the same time 
with the bracelet, she heated it in the fire 
and with the edge and point burned circles, 
stripes, zigzags and other figures on the 
sticks by way of prnament. The scalps 
were to be tied to the top of these poles and 
be carried by her in the dance. 

While Dove was thus employed. Hawk 
reddened his spear, knife and tomahawk 
with ochre, and by the time this was com- 
pleted it was nearly night. 

A while after dark some of the neighbors 
came in and Hawk was compelled to relate 
fully his encounter with the Pawnee war- 
rior. Afterwards the company was enter- 
129 


HAWK: THE YOUNG OSAGE 


tained by an old man who was reputed to 
be the best story-teller of the tribe. He told 
of a number of war and hunting expeditions 
in which he had in his youth participated, 
and related several ghost and fairy stories 
handed down by tradition. 

At a late hour their guests departed and 
Hawk and Dove retired, but he could not 
sleep until his wife had tied a small skin 
over his head, as it felt too cool from losing 
the heavy covering of hair. 

The next morning Dove, having first 
assisted her husband to complete his prepa- 
rations for the honorable part he was to 
take in the festivities of the evening, aided 
her mother to cook food for the guests they 
might be called upon to entertain, and then 
devoted the most of the afternoon to her 
own toilet. She first combed her hair with 

a comb made by tying together a bundle of 
130 


THE SCALP DANCE 

small twigs, the ends being kept even, and 
her mother assisted her in parting it evenly 
from the forehead to the back of the neck 
and in painting the scalp at the parting a 
bright red. It was braided in two braids 
which hung down her back; and around 
her forehead she wore a narrow band of 
otter fur ornamented with colored quills. 
The side seams of her leggings had fur 
sewed in, and there was a row of colored 
quills down each side of the seams. Her 
moccasins had similar ornamentation and 
her tight fitting, sleeveless shirt was of the 
finest dressed fawn skin, but her skirt was 
the best garment she wore. It reached 
from the waist to the knees, was of fine 
buckskin and ornamented elaborately. 
Around the bottom was a strip of otter fur 
about four inches wide and above that was 

row after row of elk teeth from animals 
131 


HAWK: THE YOUNG OSAGE 


killed by her husband and father; indeed, 
her mother had given up all her own orna- 
ments of this kind that Dove might be prop- 
erly gowned for the important occasion. 
She wore anklets made by tying together 
the hoofs of antelopes and fawns, and these, 
as she walked, tinkled almost like little bells 
and when she danced they sounded like 
castanets. Both her plump bare arms were 
encircled by copper bracelets bright as gold 
from the scouring with ashes she had given 
them, and she wore a necklace made of 
shells and the teeth of small animals. The 
bracelets were a gift from her father, but 
the necklace had been made by Hawk just 
before their marriage. He had spent many 
hours drilling holes through the teeth with 
a small stick and sharp sand, and it had 
been his wedding present. In accordance 

with the custom, Dove had several holes in 
132 


THE SCALP DANCE 

the cartilage of each ear near the rim and in 
these she hung small white shells. 

When dressed, Dove took in her hands 
the small poles to which the scalps were 
attached and danced around the lodge for 
the admiration of her husband, who de- 
clared that his wife would be the hand- 
somest woman in the crowd. 

When the drum sounded to assemble the 
dancers, they proceeded to the Council 
House; Hawk arrayed in all his finery, 
reddened weapons in hand, while Dove 
carried in one hand the small poles with 
the scalps attached and in the other a gourd 
containing a number of small pebbles for 
use as a rattle. 

The orchestra which was to furnish the 
music was already in position on one side 
of the lodge. It consisted of a drum made 

by stretching a rawhide tightly over a sec- 
133 


HAWK: THE YOUNG OSAGE 


tion of a hollow tree, and was beaten with a 
club. A second musician wielded a rattle 
of deer hoofs and a third had a gourd with 
pebbles. There were also six boys whose 
duty it was to shout in time, “ hi, hi, hi,” 
and strike together two dry sticks. 

The Council House was made like a 
large lodge, circular in form, the roof and 
sides being covered with dressed buffalo 
skins, but to-night the side walls had been 
taken down that the crowd, massed around 
the outside, might witness the performance. 
A large fire had been kindled in the center 
and around the sides were a number of 
torches made from the dry loose bark of 
the hickory-tree. These were held by boys, 
and other bundles of bark were ready for 
use when any should be burned out. 

The warriors who had been of the party 

against the Pawnees took their places on 
134 


THE SCALP DANCE 

one side of the building and their women 
ranged themselves opposite. The music 
started and the women advanced toward 
the men, dancing by two short hops on each 
foot, at the same time ejaculating the syl- 
lables “ hi, hi, hi,” and shaking their rattles 
at each hop. They then retreated in the 
same manner, the men following and shout- 
ing ho, ho, ho.” This was kept up for 
some time and then the women assembled 
in a group facing outward while the men 
circled around them in single file, each 
brandishing his weapons and shouting the 
war-whoop of the Osages at the top of his 
voice while the women shook and flour- 
ished the scalps and kept up their shrill 
shouts of “ hi, hi, hi.” 

When tired of this the dancers stood in 
a circle while one warrior at a time entered 

the cleared space in the center and depicted 
135 


HAWK: THE YOUNG OSAGE 

in pantomime what was intended to repre- 
sent his own actions during the recent cam- 
paign. Several varied the performance by 
loudly boasting of their own valorous deeds 
and ridicule of the Pawnees for their panic 
when the camp was assaulted. These rela- 
tions brought rounds of applause from the 
bystanders, but when Hawk entered the 
ring all interest centered in him as the guest 
of honor. He confined himself wholly to 
pantomime and proved to be no indifferent 
actor. He first showed the party leaving 
the village one by one after nightfall ; their 
assembly at the rendezvous; their rapid 
march in single file to the first stream and 
wading up it, crossing the prairie and 
wading again; their concealment during 
the days in thickets and all the occurrences 
leading up to and including his killing and 

scalping the Pawnee. When the applause 
136 


THE SCALP DANCE 

which followed this realistic pantomime 
had subsided, Hawk continued to depict his 
search for the camp of the enemy; his de- 
tecting the smoke; the discovery of the 
camp-fire ; his escape from detection by the 
scout; counting the number of the hunting 
party; the return to his own band; their 
rapid approach to the Pawnee camp; the 
surprise and final charge; the victory, his 
second scalp and their hasty return to the 
village. 

The applause which followed this ex- 
hibition was loud and prolonged, and after 
it subsided, the announcement was made 
that the dance would be continued the next 
evening, and all dispersed to their lodges, 
many with guests from neighboring vil- 
lages. Smoking and story-telling were in- 
dulged in at many of the lodges until nearly 
morning. 


137 


HAWK: THE YOUNG OSAGE 

The next day was given up to feasting 
and sports; foot-racing, shooting at marks 
and games of ball by the boys and younger 
warriors, while the older ones engaged in 
gambling. The principal game was one 
with wild plum stones having marks 
scratched upon them, which were shaken in 
a moccasin and thrown like dice. The 
players and bystanders made their bets 
freely and many fine buffalo robes and 
handsome weapons exchanged owners as 
the game progressed. Some of the gam- 
blers, after losing their immediate posses- 
sions, staked a wife, and, in consequence, 
several women found they had new hus- 
bands in the evening. To this they made 
no objection but quietly accompanied their 
new lords to their lodges. The custom was 
so common as to occasion no surprise or 

resistance. Some of the warriors, however, 
138 


THE SCALP DANCE 

who had in the excitement of the game, 
staked and lost favorite wives, compro- 
mised with the winners by the promise of 
an extravagant number of buffalo robes for 
their redemption. 

The exercises at the dance on the second 
night were much the same as on the first, 
except that as all the warriors who had 
taken scalps during the year were allowed 
to participate, the pantomime was more 
varied and there was an entire change of 
program, many other battles and personal 
adventures being described in similar pan- 
tomime and boastful words. 

The whole performance was pronounced 
quite a success, and all the young men were 
incited to patriotic efforts against the tribal 
enemies that they might attain similar 
honors. 


139 


HAWK: THE YOUNG OSAGE 


CHAPTER IX 

HIS OWN LODGE 

E arly one fail Hawk commenced 
the erection of a lodge as a home 
for himself and Dove. The boy 
born before his expedition against the Paw- 
nees had been succeeded by a bright-eyed 
girl of whom he was even prouder than he 
had been of his son, and both himself and 
wife thought it was time for them to estab- 
lish a home of their own. All of Hawk’s 
relatives and many boys and friends, both 
men and women, assisted. While the men 
burned down and burned off trees of the 
proper size and length for posts, forks and 

rafters, the women carried these sticks to 
140 


HIS OWN LODGE 


the place selected, as well as small brush 
and grass with which to cover the roof. 

The stone axes used by the Indians be- 
fore the advent of the whites were of little 
use for actual chopping, as they could not 
be made to carry an edge strong and fine 
enough for this purpose, so they piled dry 
wood around the base of a tree and burned 
it down, wetting the trunk above to prevent 
the fire from ascending the tree, and in a 
similar manner they burned off the sticks at 
the desired length. 

As this lodge was to be a small one, a 
circle, perhaps twenty feet in diameter, was 
marked off on the ground and all hands 
went to work with picks and spades made 
from flints and the shoulder-blades of buf- 
faloes and elks, removing the dirt within 
the circle to the depth of about four feet. 

The dirt removed was carried out of the 
141 


HAWK: THE YOUNG OSAGE 

excavation in bark baskets and hides and 
piled up for use later. Forked posts were 
then planted a few feet apart around the 
outer edge of the excavation, extending 
about a foot above the top and connected 
by poles laid from fork to fork to support 
the rafters. The space between these posts 
was filled in by driving down smaller posts 
close together. Four heavy posts with forks 
were set in a square near the center; these 
being about twelve to fifteen feet high, and 
heavy poles laid from one to the other on 
which were placed long poles sloping down 
to the plates at the eaves. On these rafters 
was placed a thick layer of small brush and 
then several inches of long prairie grass. 
A thick wall of sods and dirt was built up 
to the eaves, and the dirt taken out of the 
excavation was piled over the whole roof 

to the depth of two feet or more and beaten 
142 


HIS OWN LODGE 

down hard so as to make the roof solid. 
A roof like this would turn rain and last for 
many years. 

The house, when completed, looked like 
a great mound of earth with four posts 
sticking out near the center. The space be- 
tween these posts was not covered but was 
left for a chimney or smoke-hole and to 
give light, for there were no windows and 
the only other opening was an entrance 
passage several feet long, on one side, made 
like the house, except the doorway, over 
which a buffalo hide was hung. 

When the lodge had been thus enclosed, 
his friends left Hawk to complete the in- 
terior, which he did with the assistance of 
Dove. They first dug a circular depression 
about four feet in diameter and one foot 
deep in the center, which they filled with 

clay dampened and well beaten, for a fire 
14,3 


HAWK: THE YOUNG OSAGE 


hearth. This was immediately under the 
smoke-hole. They made a bed or couch at 
one side of the lodge, which they first cov- 
ered with a good bed of dry grass and then 
with plenty of buffalo hides and other skins 
for covering, and constructed a similar but 
smaller bed near it for the babies. Hawk 
spent several days in making a metate or 
mortar for grinding corn, small seeds and 
dried meat, by pecking a circular depres- 
sion with flint picks in a flat stone. He 
made this cavity about a foot in diameter 
and two inches deep and when completed 
rubbed the inside smooth with sharp sand 
and water, and then shaped another stone 
for a pestle to grind with. 

All being finally completed, they 
brought from her mother’s lodge the skins, 
furs, baskets, pottery vessels, clothing, uten- 
sils, weapons, ornaments and other personal 
144 


HIS OWN LODGE 


property belonging to each, and Dove, 
having carried from the river-bank several 
armfuls of driftwood, they kindled a fire, 
cooked their supper and lay down to sleep 
in their own home. Very happy and proud 
they were to occupy it, but the small red 
boy looked very strangely at his new sur- 
roundings, which brought peals of laughter 
from his parents. 

They had no callers the first night, as it 
was not considered conducive to good luck 
to have friends intrude the first night, but 
the next they came in numbers, for the 
young couple were very popular in the 
village. 

As soon as they had finished the small 
conveniences necessary in the house and 
were fairly established, Hawk went to hunt- 
ing diligently every day and brought home 

every night a plentiful supply of meat 
145 


HAWK; THE YOUNG OSAGE 


which Dove dried and cared for, and they 
invited their relatives and all who had 
assisted them in building the lodge to a 
feast. 

During their season Dove had gathered 
quantities of nuts, wild plums, berries, 
grapes, sunflower and other seeds which 
she had dried. She had also during the 
summer cultivated a large patch of corn, 
pumpkins, beans, and a patch of tobacco. 
Much of the corn she had cut from the cobs 
and dried while it was in the roasting-ear 
or milk stage, and the rest of it was in a 
small crib or bin on one side of the lodge, 
as were also the squashes and pumpkins, 
while the beans she had shelled and they 
were in baskets hung to the rafters. 

The day before the party, and nearly all 
that day. Dove and her mother were busy 

over the fire in the center of the lodge. 

146 


HIS OWN LODGE 

They boiled meat, corn, pumpkins and 
dried choke-cherries together in large pot- 
tery vessels holding several gallons; they 
cracked large quantities of nuts and filled 
small baskets with dried berries and fruits 
and parched corn, to be passed around to 
their guests. 

A few days before Dove had boiled a 
quantity of corn in water with wood-ashes 
and when the grain was thoroughly cooked 
and greatly swollen, she had washed it 
through several waters to remove the ley at 
the same time rubbing off the skin. This 
she now cooked again, putting in a quantity 
of buffalo marrow, and this hominy would 
constitute one of the principal courses at 
the feast. 

Both Hawk and Dove, dressed in their 
best with all their ornaments, received their 

guests who began to arrive soon after dark. 

147 


HAWK: THE YOUNG OSAGE 


No regrets were received, and as soon as all 
had arrived food was served and every 
guest ate to the extent of his or her capacity, 
and then, a bright fire being kept up in the 
center of the lodge, they all smoked in great 
content for some time. After this, I-o-ka- 
du-za, who was a noted story-teller, enter- 
tained them with stories and traditions of 
the former wars of the tribe. One of the 
most thrilling of these was a narrative of a 
war-party against the Pawnees in which he 
had taken part many years before, and in 
which the enemy had come upon them in 
overwhelming numbers and few of the 
Osage party escaped death or injury. This 
led an old warrior to relate a story of the 
invasion of the Osage territory many years 
before by a war-party from a tribe whose 
home was far to the northeast, on the shores 

of a great lake. Almost every warrior of 
148 


HIS OWN LODGE 


this strange tribe had worn copper brace- 
lets and necklaces and not a few of them 
had knives and spear heads of this metal, 
which had been hardened by pounding 
them into shape, and they would carry a 
much sharper and better edge than the 
flint knives of the Osages. The Osages 
had summoned all their warriors and met 
them bravely in a series of battles, and al- 
though his tribe had lost many warriors, 
it was finally successful and every stranger 
was killed, not one being left to carry back 
the tale to the villages by the distant lakes. 
Nearly all the copper ornaments and 
weapons, then somewhat plentiful among 
the Osages, had been acquired in this 
war. 

Several of the guests told ghost stories, 
and they finally persuaded I-ho-ni-ca-ta, or 

Stone Axe, Dove’s uncle, to tell one of the 
149 


HAWK; THE YOUNG OSAGE 

ancient stories handed down by tradition, 
and this is the story he told: 

“ A long time ago, when animals could 
talk with human beings, there was a young 
man whose wife’s father hated him and 
plotted to kill him ; so he invited the young 
man, who lived in another village, to a 
feast. Before he arrived, the wife’s father 
dug a very deep pit in the floor of his lodge 
and covered it with small dry sticks on 
which he laid a couch of skins. 

“ On his way to the village and feast the 
young man met a wolf which was very lean 
and nearly starved. The young man said 
to the wolf: ‘Good morning, my brother; 
are you well? ’ The wolf answered: ‘ I am 
very hungry and can find nothing to eat. 
Take your bow and shoot me that I may 
die and forget my hunger.’ The young 

man said: ‘My brother, why should you 
150 


HIS OWN LODGE 


die? Here is meat;’ and he gave him a 
large piece of buffalo meat he was taking 
as a present to his wife’s father. 

“ The wolf ate the meat and the young 
man went on his way. When he arrived 
at the lodge he was well received. His 
wife’s father said: ‘ My son, I am glad to 
see you. Is your wife, my daughter, well 
and are the dear children well? Sit down 
on this nice couch until the feast is ready.’ 
When he did so the sticks broke and he 
fell into the pit which was very deep. His 
wife’s father threw some skins down on 
him and then filled the pit with dirt. Early 
the next morning the whole village re- 
moved to a distant place and the wife’s 
father took down his lodge and removed 
with the others, and none but he knew that 
the young man was in the pit. 

“ After two or three days a pack of 
151 


HAWK: THE YOUNG OSAGE 

wolves wandered into the deserted village 
in search of food. One of them smelled the 
hides which were in the pit; or, perhaps, 
he smelled the young man, and he dug 
down until he found him. The wolf said: 
^ My brother, you did not shoot me but 
gave me meat, and now I will save you.’ 
So he called the other wolves and they 
found a long raw-hide rope which they let 
down in the pit until the young man took 
hold of it, then all the wolves pulled on it 
with their teeth until they pulled the young 
man out. 

The young man ate some food, and 
when he was strong he found his wife’s 
father and killed and scalped him.” 


152 


THE SACRED SPRING 


CHAPTER X 

THE SACRED SPRING 

I N the spring after the lodge was built, 
Dove was taken sick and remained 
for several months so ill that Hawk 
joined no war-parties and went on no long 
hunting excursions. He hunted and fished 
enough, however, to supply the family 
wants and to pay the medicine-man who at- 
tended her. 

She was not confined to the bed much of 
the time, but was weak, listless and easily 
exhausted; now shaking with chills and 
then burning with fever. She was waited 
upon assiduously by her own and Hawk’s 

mother, and, except when it was necessary 
153 


HAWK; THE YOUNG OSAGE 

to procure food, her husband never left her 
side. 

Both of the babies grew and flourished, 
however, and Hawk spent much of his idle 
time in amusing and entertaining his boy. 

The medicine-man, who was Dove’s 
uncle. Stone Axe, visited her daily, smoked 
his pipes and practised his incantations. 
He used his most sacred pipe and often re- 
viled the evil spirit which caused her sick- 
ness, ordering it to flee to the distant moun- 
tains or hide itself in the swamp and cease 
tormenting her. He finally introduced his 
most powerful treatment. He dressed him- 
self in the skin of a black bear, took his 
rattle in his hand and visited her. He 
walked around her on all fours, imitating 
the motions of the animal he represented; 
growled in deep bass and jumped over her 

body back and forth, but all without effect. 

154 


THE SACRED SPRING 

He then told her husband that his wife’s 
illness was caused by a malignant spirit 
which had a great enmity against Hawk 
himself, and had made his wife ill to cause 
him sorrow. He said the abode of this 
spirit was in a sacred spring about two 
days’ journey northwest of the village, and 
before Dove could recover under his treat- 
ment it w^ould be necessary to propitiate the 
spirit and induce it to remove its baleful 
influence. He advised that Hawk should 
carefully purify himself by abstaining for 
a time from certain food and by daily sweat- 
baths, while the doctor himself would con- 
tinue his incantations to ascertain what 
should be done to induce the spirit to 
withdraw from the persecution of 
Dove. 

To this. Hawk, who greatly loved his 

wife, gave a cheerful consent. He cared 
155 


HAWK: THE YOUNG OSAGE 


little what suffering he might endure, pro- 
vided only it might result in her recovery. 
For several days, therefore, under direction 
of the doctor, he entered the In-i-ti-pi, or 
sweat-lodge, and when in profuse perspira- 
tion, plunged into the river. 

At the end of five days. Stone Axe de- 
cided that his purification was complete 
and he ordered him to make a pilgrimage 
to this spring, taking with him as sacrifices 
or presents to the spirit, his most valuable 
ornaments and finest weapons, including a 
perfect spear, a large knife, a bundle of 
arrows of the finest manufacture, a quantity 
of tobacco and a few of the best and largest 
vessels in the household supply of pottery. 
He was to take with him also, a white buf- 
falo robe belonging to the medicine-man, 
as a defense against the attacks of any spirits 
upon himself. 


156 


THE SACRED SPRING 

These white robes were very rare and 
only once in many years was a white buf- 
falo found or killed; but they were valu- 
able, as it was well known that the owner 
was not only safe from weapons of an 
enemy, but a man wrapped in such a robe 
might sleep safely in the worst spirit- 
haunted locality. 

He told Hawk he must make certain sac- 
rifices at the spring every morning and eve- 
ning for five days; reciting at the same 
time a prayer which he taught him, and 
that he must wrap himself in the robe at 
night and be sure to remember his 
dreams. 

Hawk at once made up a bundle of pres- 
ents for the spirit of the spring, took an 
affectionate leave of his wife and babies 
and set out. 

Dove, having implicit confidence in her 
157 


HAWK: THE YOUNG OSAGE 

doctor, seemed better already, and her hus- 
band left the village early in the morning 
with a light step and cheerful countenance. 
He carried only his presents, his weapons 
and a small quantity of food, and he was so 
anxious for his wife’s recovery that he 
scarcely paused day or night until he 
reached the spring. 

He approached it with not a little awe, 
for the Indians, brave enough in personal 
encounters in the hunt or on the war-path, 
were greatly afraid of spirits, and when 
Hawk saw the large bones of mammoths 
and other prehistoric animals which lay 
about the small swamp or protruded from 
its mud, he almost wished he had not under- 
taken the trip. 

He had often heard of the spring, but the 
Indians never encamped in its locality, and 

none of them ever visited it except on such 
158 


THE SACRED SPRING 

errands as that of Hawk. The bones they 
thought to be those of spirits, and this, with 
the strange taste of the water, made the 
place wakanda or mysterious and there- 
fore to be avoided. 

After a short time, however, his fear 
wore off to some extent, he kindled a fire, 
burned some tobacco and cast into the 
spring some of the presents, repeating at 
the same time the prayer Stone Axe had 
taught him, and then, wrapped in the pro- 
tecting white robe, lay down without fear 
and slept soundly until morning, for he was 
very tired. 

If he dreamed anything that night he 
did not remember it. 

He repeated the sacrifices and prayers 
every morning and evening for five days, 
fasting all the time according to the in- 
structions. 


159 


HAWK: THE YOUNG OSAGE 


Before casting a pottery vessel into the 
spring, he broke it that it might become 
dead or spiritualized and thus acceptable 
to the spirits. 

On the second night he dreamed that he 
was ill in a manner similar to the sickness 
of Dove; that he went into the woods and 
procured some very bitter bark of which 
he chewed and swallowed a quantity and 
felt much better. The third night he 
dreamed that he was sick and burning with 
fever; that he went to the spring and 
bathed in it, finding the water so hot that 
it nearly scalded him, but after the bath he 
was again better. The fourth night his 
dream was that he was very weak, but 
when he had shot a fawn and taken several 
drinks of broth he made from its flesh, his 
strength was fully restored and he was en- 
tirely well. The fifth night he had no 
160 


THE SACRED SPRING 

dream and in the morning he cast the last 
of his presents into the water and burned 
his final offering of tobacco. 

His fast was now over and he ate heartily 
of the dried meat and parched corn he 
had brought with him, gathered up his 
weapons and robe and stood by the 
spring for a last look before starting 
home. 

While gazing at a large bone of a mam- 
moth which was sticking out of the swamp 
a few steps from him, to his horror he saw 
it begin to rise. He stood spellbound while 
the bone and surrounding mud rose slowly 
to the height of about a foot, making a 
mound some four feet in diameter. All at 
once the bone leaped clear out followed by 
a stream of mud and water. At this. 
Hawk, who thought that one of the spirits 

of the spring was about to appear, gave a 
161 


HAWK: THE YOUNG OSAGE 


loud yell and started for home, never once 
looking backd 

Hawk spent the night far from the local- 
ity, but had it not been for the robe of the 
white buffalo he would not have slept. 
Safe from all spirits while in its folds, his 
sleep was sound and in the morning he was 
entirely recovered from his fright. 

He found himself frightfully hungry, 
but having soon killed a deer, he cooked 

^This spring still bubbles up in a swamp of an 
acre or so in extent in the northeast part of the In- 
dian Territory, near the village of Afton. There still 
lie in and around the swamp bones of mammoths 
and other large animals, but most of them have been 
carried away by curiosity hunters. Visitors are still 
frequently surprised by the rising and rupture of 
small mounds of mud, caused doubtless by the ac- 
cumulation of gasses in the depths of the swamp. 
The water is strongly impregnated with sulphur 
and is supposed to have medicinal properties. 

A few years ago the spring was cleared out by 
the Bureau of American Ethnology under the per- 
sonal direction of Dr. W. H. Holmes, who found 
hundreds of flint knives, spear and arrow heads in 
its depths, which were doubtless offerings similar to 
those made by Hawk. 


162 


THE SACRED SPRING 

and ate a goodly portion of it, tied a part of 
the flesh in the hide which he slung over 
his shoulder and resumed his journey, 
deeply pondering over his strange experi- 
ences and hoping he might find Dove fully 
recovered on his return, as the result of his 
pilgrimage and sacrifices. 

When he reached home, however, greatly 
to his disappointment, he found her worse ; 
her fever was so high that she talked in an 
irrational manner and did not recognize 
him. She thought she was again attacked 
by the Pawnees and screamed for him to 
rescue her. Greatly alarmed, he went at 
once to the medicine-man and reproached 
him with the failure of the expedition. 
Stone Axe paid little attention to Hawk’s 
scolding but questioned him closely about 
what he had done, what dreams he had and 

what had occurred at the Wakanda Spring. 

163 


HAWK: THE YOUNG OSAGE 


When he had concluded, he told Hawk that 
nothing could be more satisfactory and that 
Dove would now recover. He said that 
when the bone leaped out of the swamp, it 
was evidence that the spirit had heard his 
prayers and was favorably impressed by the 
gifts. 

Stone Axe said nothing about the dreams 
but pondered deeply upon them, and finally 
concluded they were messages from the 
spirit of the spring in regard to the treat- 
ment to be adopted for Dove’s recovery. 
He at once went to the woods and procur- 
ing bark similar to that used by Hawk in 
his dream, he made a decoction from it, of 
which he caused his patient to drink fre- 
quently for five days. Then he made a bath 
in her lodge by digging a shallow pit and 
lining it with a fresh buffalo hide. This 

he filled with water and after heating it 
164 


THE SACRED SPRING 


with hot stones, put her in for half an hour, 
keeping the water as hot as she could bear 
it; after which she was warmly covered in 
bed to perspire freely. After five days of 
this treatment, he had Hawk shoot a fawn 
and fed her upon its broth for five days 
more, at the end of which time the disease 
had entirely left her and it was only neces- 
sary that she should have plenty of nourish- 
ing food and do but little work for a few 
weeks when her strength was entirely re- 
stored and she went about her duties as 
usual. 

Stone Axe was greatly delighted with the 
new cure for fevers which Hawk’s lucky 
dreams had brought to his knowledge. He 
cautioned him not to relate them to any 
one, fearing some rival practitioner might 
learn the treatment; but he told Hawk his 

wife was sure to become ill again if he told 
165 


HAWK: THE YOUNG OSAGE 

them. The doctor, however, adopted this 
treatment for all cases of chills and fevers 
and was so successful that he attained a 
reputation as the greatest medicine-man of 
the tribe, against whose magic the strongest 
spirits could not prevail. 


166 


DOVE CAPTURED 


CHAPTER XI 

DOVE CAPTURED 

O NE night Hawk, returning late 
from a hunting expedition, found 
no one in the lodge. He supposed 
Dove had gone with the children to stay 
with her mother, as she sometimes did. He 
was very tired, and after he had eaten of 
the food which he found prepared, he lay 
down and slept soundly. It was late the 
next morning when he awoke, but his wife 
was still absent. He was now somewhat 
alarmed and hurried to the lodge of his 
mother-in-law, where he found the chil- 
dren, and was told that late in the after- 
noon before Dove had left them, stating 

that she was going out to pick some black- 
167 


HAWK: THE YOUNG OSAGE 


berries for her husband’s supper and that 
Hawk’s mother was going with her. She 
had asked that the children might remain 
until morning as she might not be home 
until some time after dark. Her mother 
had, therefore, not been uneasy on her ac- 
count. 

Hawk now hurried to the lodge of his 
mother and found her absent also, but her 
children had not been alarmed, as they sup- 
posed she had remained over night with 
Dove. 

Greatly alarmed. Hawk now returned to 
his lodge, caught up his weapons, and, with- 
out waiting for anything to eat, for indeed 
he had no desire for food, started for the 
berry patch, which was more than a mile 
from the village. He did not approach it 
directly, for he knew the women had either 

been killed, maimed by wild animals or 
168 


DOVE CAPTURED 


men, or were now prisoners. If the latter, 
he suspected they might still be in or near 
the thicket, being held by their captors in 
the hope that upon being missed, either 
Hawk alone or with but few of the Osages 
might come in search of them, and that by 
lying in ambush, some scalps might be se- 
cured. He, therefore, made a wide detour 
and approached the berry patch through a 
dense thicket. He moved slowly and with 
great caution, inspecting every inch of the 
ground as he proceeded for traces of either 
the women or an enemy. As he slowly 
circled the patch, he had gone nearly half- 
round when he discovered the moccasin 
prints of the women. The impression of 
Dove’s small foot was plainly visible in a 
soft spot, and Hawk’s heart came into his 
mouth as he thought of her love and that 

he might never see her again. 

169 


HAWK: THE YOUNG OSAGE 

With bow and arrow in hand, he slowly 
followed the trail marked by the bushes 
they had broken down in forcing their way 
through the briars to reach the largest and 
sweetest berries. 

Soon he came to a spot where the bushes 
were much trampled and there were other 
evidences of a severe struggle; but he was 
glad to find no blood. At one side, how- 
ever, lay the bark baskets in which the 
women had been gathering berries. One 
of them, which he recognized as belonging 
to Dove, had been nearly full, but most of 
the berries had fallen out when it had been 
dropped in the struggle. Near this he 
found, almost concealed under some leaves, 
a small copper bracelet which he had given 
his wife at the time of their marriage. It 
had either been torn from her arm in her 

capture, or, as he was inclined to believe, 
170 


DOVE CAPTURED 


she had found opportunity to secrete it, as 
a clue by which he might trace her. 

Numerous moccasin tracks in the soft 
ground, which, from their shape and 
method of manufacture were clearly Paw- 
nee, indicated but too clearly what had hap- 
pened. A party of Pawnees, in search of 
Osage scalps, had been concealed in the 
thicket, perhaps for days, and failing to 
find an opportunity to kill a warrior, had 
crept upon the two women while they were 
picking berries, and had carried them off 
as prisoners. 

From the appearance of the moccasin 
tracks and broken bushes, as well as from 
the small quantity of berries which seemed 
to have been gathered. Hawk was of the 
opinion that the capture had been effected 
soon after the arrival of the women at the 
berry patch. 


171 


HAWK: THE YOUNG OSAGE 

Now he began eagerly to trace the ma- 
rauders. At first, there was no attempt at 
concealing the trail ; the bushes being 
trampled down by the moccasined feet, 
made a path easy to follow. In places 
Hawk plainly saw the impressions of 
Dove’s feet and those of his mother. Both 
were deep, showing that the women had 
been forcibly dragged along. When he 
reached the more open ground, however, 
beyond the briars, all traces of the women 
suddenly ceased and he began to fear they 
had been killed and searched some time for 
the bodies. 

He found, too, that while at first he could 
distinguish the tracks of several Pawnees, 
now he could find but one, or, at most, two 
imprints of the feet of men. Finally com- 
ing to a piece of soft ground several yards 

across, he discovered that the Pawnees had 
172 


DOVE CAPTURED 


proceeded in single file, each stepping ex- 
actly in the tracks of the one who had pre- 
ceded him, the one with the largest foot 
bringing up the rear. He was sure also 
that the women had been carried across this 
soft place to prevent their tracks from show- 
ing, for the footprints of the rear man or 
men were deep, as if carrying a load. 

Again Hawk feared an ambush and 
made a wide detour from the trail, but as 
he circled he struck it again a mile or more 
distant and still going in the same direction 
as at first; and now he was satisfied that 
both women were again walking but were 
compelled to step in the tracks of those who 
had gone before, and the rear man with 
the large feet had nearly obliterated all 
other impressions. 

The trail for the next few miles, to a 

point where it entered a shallow stream, 
173 


HAWK: THE YOUNG OSAGE 

was not hard to follow; but here it was 
completely lost, the rocky bottom having 
retained no impression of footsteps. 

After an examination, Hawk was sure 
they had not crossed, but had waded in the 
stream; which direction, however, was a 
puzzle. He entered it and waded up for a 
long distance and then down, closely in- 
specting the banks upon both sides, but 
could find no traces showing the party had 
passed. As he was wading slowly up again 
to the starting point, he saw on the bottom 
the bright end of a freshly broken twig the 
leaves of which had caught under a stone. 
He examined it and was satisfied that it had 
recently been broken from a bush, and, as 
it was hard wood, he concluded that it had 
been broken off by a human hand. A few 
rods further he found another, lodged 

against a bunch of willows growing in the 
174 


DOVE CAPTURED 


stream, and a short distance above, where 
the trail had entered the stream, he found a 
third. All was now clear. The party had 
gone up stream, and, as the Pawnees would 
not thus mark their trail in an enemy’s 
country, he concluded that Dove or his 
mother must have silently broken ofiP and 
dropped these branches as they waded up 
the stream, knowing that he would surely 
follow and that these would guide him. 

He now pushed rapidly up the creek ob- 
serving both banks with a practised eye, 
and when he had gone about half a mile be- 
yond the point of his first exploration, he 
came suddenly upon the body of his mother. 
She lay partly in the stream and a small 
twig in her hand, freshly broken from a 
bush, revealed the reason for her death; a 
Pawnee warrior had caught her in the act 

of thus marking the trail and had thrust 
175 


HAWK: THE YOUNG OSAGE 

her through with his spear. That she had 
not died without a struggle, was apparent 
from the fact that the shaft of the spear was 
broken, and, as this had rendered it tempo- 
rarily useless, the warrior had left the 
weapon in the body. A tomahawk had also 
been sunken into her head and the scalp 
was gone. 

For a moment, Indian as he was, the 
tears stood in Hawk’s eyes. He had fondly 
loved his mother who had always been kind 
to him, and she had doubly endeared her- 
self by taking Dove to her heart as a 
daughter upon his marriage. He stood for 
a moment dumb with horror and grief; 
then grinding his teeth with rage, he gently 
removed the spear and laid it on one side. 
He carried the body to a small ditch or 
wash, in which he laid it tenderly and cov- 
ered it first with brush and then with stones 
176 


DOVE CAPTURED 


as large as he could carry, in order to pro- 
tect it from the wolves until he might re- 
turn and give it proper burial. He con- 
cealed the bloody spear where he could 
readily find it again, drew his belt tighter, 
grasped his weapons and again hurried up 
the stream. 

He soon found where the Pawnees had 
left the water, as, after killing the woman, 
they had made no effort to conceal their 
trail but had pushed on with all speed in 
the direction of the Pawnee country. 

After leaving the stream a few miles be- 
hind, Hawk found that the party holding 
Dove still as a captive, had been joined by 
a large number of warriors, the tracks in- 
dicating fifty or more, and despairing of 
being able to overtake them or to rescue 
his wife if he should do so, he reluctantly 

abandoned the pursuit and turned sadly 
177 


HAWK: THE YOUNG OSAGE 


toward the Osage village, that he might 
procure help to bring in the body of his 
mother. 

On reaching the village he found that his 
father, who had unexpectedly returned 
from a hunt in the afternoon, had with a 
small party followed Hawk’s trail, found 
the body of Ang-pah-o, and returned with 
it to the village. The wail of the women 
for the dead reached his ears long before 
he entered the village. 

The next morning Hawk brought from 
the place where he had concealed it, the 
spear with which his mother had been 
killed. The head was a fine one, being 
made of flint. It was about six inches long 
and two wide, terminating in a sharp point 
and the edges were very thin and sharp. 
When he had cleaned the shaft or handle. 

Hawk knew from the owner’s private mark, 
178 


DOVE CAPTURED 


which an Indian generally had on all his 
weapons, that it was the property of Haw- 
che-ke-sug-ga, the man who kills Osages. 
This Pawnee warrior had well earned his 
name by his undying hatred against Hawk’s 
tribe. It was well known that Killer of 
Osages seldom took prisoners upon the war- 
path, but when he did it was only for the 
purpose of taking their lives by the most 
horrid tortures upon return to the Pawnee 
village. 

A chill struck to Hawk’s heart when he 
discovered the mark, as he thought of his 
mother’s death and Dove a prisoner in the 
hands of such a foe, but he shut his teeth 
hard and vowed to the spirit of his mystery 
bag and the spirit of the Wakanda Spring 
that he would kill that Pawnee with this 
same spear or lose his own life in the at- 
tempt. 


179 


HAWK: THE YOUNG OSAGE 


He left the stains of his mother’s blood 
upon the head, but made for it a new shaft. 

It happened that at the time of this raid 
by the Pawnees but few Osages were at the 
village. The great body of hunters and 
warriors, accompanied by many of the 
women, had a few days before, started upon 
the fall buffalo hunt on the distant plains 
beyond the Arkansas River, and few were 
left in the village but the children, the old 
and sick and a sufficient number of able- 
bodied men to guard the village from at- 
tack by a hostile tribe. The Pawnee party 
had doubtless learned of’ this and it had 
emboldened them to venture so near the 
village. Under such conditions, it was im- 
possible for Hawk to organize a party to 
attempt the rescue of Dove. 

Some of his friends advised him that he 

might as well make up his mind to her final 
180 


DOVE CAPTURED 


loss, for while it was not the usual custom 
of the Pawnees to torture and kill their 
female prisoners, the reputation of Haw- 
che-ke-sug-ga was well known; and, be- 
sides, if spared, it would be to become the 
wife of her captor, a fate scarcely more de- 
sirable than death itself. 

Hawk repelled such suggestions so 
fiercely that they were not offered again, 
but others, among whom were his father- 
in-law, advised that he quietly await the 
return of the hunters, which would be in 
a month or two, and then undertake to en- 
list the whole force of the Osages in a gen- 
eral war against the Pawnees, which, if it 
could be accomplished, might offer some 
chance for the rescue of his wife. 

In this kind of advice Hawk found as 
little consolation as in the other. He did 

not think the tribe likely to involve itself 
♦ 181 


HAWK: THE YOUNG OSAGE 

in a general war of doubtful outcome 
against a tribe so powerful as the Pawnees, 
for the sake of a woman only. He would 
probably be told by the Council to take an- 
other wife and forget Dove. Forget Dove! 
Never! 

He could not bear to think of her as the 
wife of a Pawnee, who would be sure to 
abuse her, and he brooded daily over his 
loss, and thought of plan after plan for her 
rescue and revenge on account of his 
mother. He dreamed nightly that Dove 
was crying for him to rescue her, and 
that his mother came to his couch and 
asked him why he did not avenge her 
death. 

At length it occurred to Hawk to visit 
again the Wakanda Spring and solicit the 
aid of the powerful spirit who had cured 

Dove of the dangerous illness. He made 
182 


DOVE CAPTURED 


the visit; sacrificing and fasting five days 
as before, and each night he dreamed that 
his wife was safe at home in his lodge. The 
last morning he saw a bone rise in the 
swamp as before, and he was comforted 
and encouraged, for he believed this to be 
an indication that the spirit had been favor- 
ably impressed by his offerings and would 
aid him in the recovery of his wife and the 
revenge so dear to his heart. He returned 
to the village and was no longer moody and 
depressed. He greeted each with a pleas- 
ant word and smile and often played with 
his children, assuring them that their 
mother would soon return. He busied him- 
self with hunting and dried the meat he 
secured until he had as much as he could 
well carry. 

One evening he made up a large package 

of parched corn and dried meat, and with 
183 


HAWK: THE YOUNG OSAGE 


all his weapons, including Osage Killer’s 
spear, left the village soon after dark, with- 
out telling any one where he was go- 
ing. 


184 


A WAR PARTY OF ONE 


CHAPTER XII 

A WAR PARTY OF ONE 

T he principal village of the Paw- 
nees was situated close to the Kaw 
River, not far from the present 
site of Junction City, Kansas. It was large 
and populous, for the Pawnees were a pow- 
erful tribe, warlike in their habits and cruel 
in their warfare. 

They had maintained possession of that 
locality for many years, and, although it 
had often been attempted, no tribe had been 
able to drive them from their hunting 
grounds. 

Their dwellings were, for the most part, 
ti-pis, made of poles tied together near the 

tops, elevated and then spread apart at the 
185 


HAWK: THE YOUNG OSAGE 


bottom and covered with buffalo hides from 
which the hair had been removed, and 
which were cut and sewed to fit as a cover, 
.a hole being left at the top for the escape 
of smoke; but they had also winter earth- 
lodges, built much like those of the 
Osages. 

On the fertile bottom lands near by, the 
women cultivated corn, beans, melons, 
pumpkins and tobacco. 

In one of these skin ti-pis lived the un- 
happy Dove. On the return of the party 
which captured her, she had been submitted 
to great indignities, and then taken as a wife 
by Haw-che-ke-sug-ga, the very warrior 
who had killed her mother-in-law. His 
own wife had recently died, by reason of 
his cruel treatment, as was generally sup- 
posed, and Dove was alone in the ti-pi when 

he was absent. He treated her very cruelly, 
186 


A WAR PARTY OF ONE 

frequently striking her with his fist or a 
rawhide whip. He was a powerful man 
physically, and stood high in the tribe on 
account of his prowess in battle and his 
sagacity in council, but his disposition was 
low and brutal. When Dove thought of 
the great kindness with which Hawk had 
always treated her, she felt that she would 
some day kill her Pawnee husband while he 
slept, but the hopelessness of her fate in that 
event, death by the most cruel tortures, de- 
terred her from such an attempt at this 
time, and, besides, she felt sure that Hawk 
would find some means to rescue her. She, 
therefore, quietly submitted to Haw-che- 
ke-sug-ga without apparent resentment, and 
endeavored to avoid blows by anticipating 
his wishes and prompt obedience to all his 
commands; but when he was absent, she 

often sat with her face in her hands, think- 
187 


HAWK: THE YOUNG OSAGE 

ing of Hawk and her two children and her 
happy home in the distant Osage village. 

Several weeks after the capture of Dove, 
a Pawnee who had gone alone upon a hunt- 
ing trip, failed to return. At first it was 
thought he might have gone to one of the 
other villages of the tribe, but on inquiry 
it was learned that he had indeed stopped 
at one on a return visit to a friend who had 
accompanied him to within sight of his 
own village and left him shortly after dark. 
His friends were alarmed and search was 
made for him in every direction. No trace 
of him was found, however; nor were any 
signs of an enemy discovered, and the more 
superstitious suggested that he must have 
been carried off by some powerful spirit. 
Before this belief became general, however, 
another warrior disappeared, and, again, 

this one had been seen a little before dark 
188 


A WAR PARTY OF ONE 


approaching the village and not far from 
it. In less than a week a third mysterious 
disappearance was reported, and every 
able-bodied man turned out to search for 
the hidden enemy; but, as before, no sign 
of an enemy was to be found, nor was there 
the slightest sign to indicate what had be- 
come of the missing warriors. 

After this no hunter would start out 
alone, but when two who had gone together 
failed to return, the mystery was so deep 
that the whole superstitious tribe trembled 
with terror and the medicine-men began in- 
cantations to drive away the evil spirit 
which seemed determined to destroy the 
whole tribe. Every night the sound of the 
medicine-drum could be heard in the Coun- 
cil House, and when a week now passed 
without indications of the mysterious and 

vindictive enemy, all began to breathe 
189 


HAWK; THE YOUNG OSAGE 

freely, the medicine-men boasted that their 
powerful incantations had driven away the 
evil spirit, and a feast was held to celebrate 
their victory. That very night a visitor 
from a neighboring village who had at- 
tended the feast, failed to reach his home, 
less than a mile away, and again terror en- 
tered every heart. 

After the first two or three disappear- 
ances, Dove made up her mind that Hawk 
was somewhere in the neighborhood, and 
was probably the cause of them, but she 
could not imagine how he had so success- 
fully concealed all traces of his presence 
and how he could have disposed of the 
bodies of his victims. Dove was more than 
usually religious, or perhaps we should call 
it superstitious, even for an Indian, .and as 
she had great confidence in the power of the 

spirit concealed in Hawk’s mystery bag, 
190 


A WAR PARTY OF ONE 

she finally concluded that it had given him 
the power of not only becoming invisible 
himself, but also of thus concealing all 
signs of his presence. She gloried in the 
revenge he was thus taking, but was care- 
ful to conceal from her Pawnee husband 
any signs of her delight; instead, she mani- 
fested the utmost horror and fear of the 
mysterious and destructive spirit. 

She waited breathlessly every morning 
to learn whether his vengeance had fallen 
again during the night, but she trembled 
when she thought of the terrible torture to 
which he would be subjected by the 
Pawnees, if they could lay hands on 
him. 

She did not doubt that at the proper time 
he would give her a signal to join him in 
an attempt to escape to their own village, 

and, in anticipation of this, she prepared 
191 


HAWK: THE YOUNG OSAGE 


and secreted a large package of parched 
corn and dried meat. 

It was indeed Hawk who had been this 
mysterious spirit of death, and who had 
already taken such terrible revenge for the 
death of his mother and the abduction of 
his wife. When he left home he made his 
way to the vicinity of the Pawnee village, 
travelling only at night and remaining con- 
cealed in deep ravines and impenetrable 
thickets during the day. One night, or 
nearly morning, he reached the immediate 
vicinity of the main Pawnee village and 
began to approach it cautiously. Just be- 
low the town the River Kaw made a sharp 
bend, cutting deeply into the limestone 
bluff. The water was very deep, but the 
current was not swift. Hawk was wading 
through the water near the shore in the 

shadow of the high bluff, when suddenly 
192 


A WAR PARTY OF ONE 

he plunged into a deep hole. He went 
under and when he came to the surface, 
was surprised to find that he could not see 
the sky or either shore, and that the dim 
lights of the village, visible a moment be- 
fore, had disappeared. A short distance 
above his head he could feel a rocky roof, 
the cavity seemed narrow as he could reach 
it with his hands on either side, but when 
he let himself down in the water, it seemed 
of unfathomable depth. He now swam 
toward the interior of the cavern and in a 
few strokes found that he could touch the 
bottom, which now rapidly sloped upward 
until it was out of water. He crawled into 
a small cave whose floor was covered to the 
depth of several inches with dry sand. The 
air seemed pure, but it was too dark to as- 
certain much in regard to its size or whether 

it was frequented by the Indians. After 
193 


HAWK; THE YOUNG OSAGE 


crawling over the floor and finding no 
bones, sticks or other evidences of prior 
occupants, Hawk, who was very tired, ate 
a small quantity of the parched corn and 
dried meat still remaining of his store, then 
stretched himself upon the sand and slept 
soundly. When he awoke, late in the morn- 
ing, he found himself in a roughly circular 
cavern about ten feet in diameter, through 
one side of which the light entered by 
means of several crevices in the bluff, of 
which the rock formed a part. After a 
careful examination, he found that the 
cavern had no other opening large enough 
for entrance than that under water by 
which he had entered it; and, as there were 
no signs of former occupancy by human 
beings, he concluded that its existence was 
unknown to the Pawnees. 

Hawk lay all day upon the sandy floor 
194 


A WAR PARTY OF ONE 

of his cave. Part of the time he slept, and 
afterwards he long and earnestly considered 
a plan of operations. The discovery of this 
place of refuge would now affect him mate- 
rially. Up to this time he had no very 
definite plan, except to reach the Pawnee 
village at night, and, if he could find Dove, 
strike down whoever might oppose him 
and escape with her or die bravely in the 
attempt, for he did not care to live longer 
without her. Now, he reflected, that with 
this refuge wholly unknown to the Paw- 
nees, and almost within their village, he 
would have a vantage ground from which 
he might take his time to work out, not only 
the sure rescue of his wife, but a revenge 
also, so delectable that he rubbed his hands 
and smiled as he thought of it, and his plan 
was at once formed. 

It was from this cave then, that Hawk 
195 


HAWK: THE YOUNG OSAGE 


had gone forth at night, found his victims, 
and returned before day. Each body he 
had carried to the river and then conveyed 
to the cave, so that no blood was found and 
no traces of the victim or avenger. 

The first Pawnee was killed on the night 
after his arrival and almost at the very edge 
of the village. Hawk heard his approach 
as he came carelessly along the path from 
his visit in the neighboring town, and ad- 
vanced to meet him, giving a friendly 
grunt when about to pass, and then struck 
the unsuspecting Indian on the head with 
his tomahawk. One blow was sufficient. 
The man made no outcry, and Hawk car- 
ried the body down a stony path to the river 
and conveyed it to his cave. There he 
stripped it, taking the moccasins for his own 
use that his track, if seen, might not inform 

the Pawnees that an Osage was in the neigh- 
196 


A WAR PARTY OF ONE 

borhood. To still further complete his dis- 
guise, he skinned the whole head of the 
Pawnee, instead of scalping him, that he 
might wear the skin over his short Osage 
locks, drawing his side hair on front of his 
shoulders, in the Pawnee fashion. If in the 
darkness he should meet any one whom it 
might be inconvenient to attack, this dis- 
guise might enable him to pass unchal- 
lenged. In his excursions thereafter he 
wore the disguise and more than once es- 
caped detection on account of it. 

All his victims were killed in the imme- 
diate vicinity of the village, and he dis- 
posed of the bodies, after taking them to 
his cave and scalping them, by tying a 
heavy stone to each with the victim’s own 
belt and strips of clothing and then pushing 
them into the deep hole at the entrance of 

his cave, where they sank to the bottom of 
197 


HAWK: THE YOUNG OSAGE 


the river. On several of them he found 
small quantities of food, and once or twice 
he ventured far enough into the village to 
steal some dried meat which was hanging 
on a brush frame. He found also a few 
ears of corn still ungathered in the fields 
near the village. These, with what was left 
of the food he brought with him, were suf- 
ficient to sustain his strength. 

These night prowlings about the village 
were mostly for the purpose of locating 
Dove, if alive, of which he had little doubt. 

One night he carefully approached a ti-pi 
which was near a ravine at one side of the 
village, and when near it he heard a noise 
of scolding in a man’s voice and the sound 
of blows as if some one was being beaten. 
He crept close and through a rip in the 
skin covering, he saw a sight which enraged 

him greatly. Haw-che-ke-sug-ga was slap- 
198 


A WAR PARTY OF ONE 

ping and scolding a woman, and in the dim 
light of the coals in the center of the hut, 
he saw plainly that the woman was Dove. 
She seemed to be well, but looked dejected 
and thin as though very unhappy. Hawk 
grasped the Pawnee spear, which he always 
carried, and made a step forward deter- 
mined to enter the ti-pi, kill the Indian who 
was abusing her and carry Dove away at 
once; but in time he reflected that while 
his wife was suffering, her life did not seem 
to be in danger, and, besides, his revenge 
was not yet complete. If he should under- 
take her rescue at this time, Haw-che-ke- 
sug-ga, whom he recognized at once, would 
surely give the alarm, he would be sur- 
rounded, captured and tortured to death, 
while Dove would remain and his expedi- 
tion be a failure after all. He could not 

remain within sound of her suffering, how- 
199 


HAWK: THE YOUNG OSAGE 

ever, and retired at once to his cave, where 
he thought long and deeply. 

He had already secured a number of 
scalps and now if he could obtain that of 
her Pawnee husband, his revenge would be 
satisfied and he would, after the rescue of 
his wife, be ready to return to the Osage 
country. 

Before morning his plan was completely 
formed, but as it involved the accumulation 
of a considerable supply of food, he started 
early the next evening and made his way 
directly south all night as far as he could 
travel. He lay concealed during the day 
and the next night went south again all 
night. In the morning, concluding that he 
was far enough from the Pawnee country 
to be beyond danger, he killed a deer, 
kindled a fire in a secluded place, and, after 

he had satisfied his now ravenous hunger, 
200 


A WAR PARTY OF ONE 

dried the remainder of the meat. The next 
morning he killed another and spent that 
day and the next in drying the flesh, which 
he cut in thin strips for the purpose. 

With the meat tightly packed in a part of 
the hide of one of the animals, he made his 
way back to the cave, travelling at night, as 
before. 

The next night he again prowled around 
the village and thoroughly perfected his 
plan. 

The following night proved to be dark 
and a slow, chilly rain was falling. Haw- 
che-ke-sug-ga was less abusive to Dove than 
usual. She had cooked him an excellent 
supper which he had eaten, in what was 
for him high good humor, and after his 
smoke had laid his pipe down beside the 
fire in the center of the ti-pi and retired to 

his couch of skins at one side. Dove pot- 
201 


HAWK: THE YOUNG OSAGE 

tered around the fire for a few minutes, 
scraping together the coals and placing 
over them the pottery vessel containing the 
succotash that it might cook a little more 
for the morning meal, and then on demand 
of the Pawnee, she lay down beside him. 
She was feeling quite depressed. There 
had been no mysterious disappearances for 
several days and she feared that something 
had happened to Hawk or that he had be- 
come discouraged and had given up all 
thought of her rescue. As she lay there 
looking at the fire and thinking these sad 
thoughts, an Indian in Pawnee dress, as to 
hair and general appearance, slouched into 
the ti-pi, gave a friendly grunt and squatted 
by the food. He took up a horn spoon and 
dipped it into the succotash again and again, 
making a good meal. After eating he 

picked up the Pawnee’s pipe, which was 
202 


A WAR PARTY OF ONE 

nearly full of tobacco, and took a comfort- 
able smoke. 

When the Indian first entered, Dove said 
to the husband beside her: “Who is the 
stranger?” Haw-che-ke-sug-ga turned 
partly over that he might see him, and then 
said : “ Some one from a neighboring vil- 
lage, I suppose.” “ But he is eating our 
food,” said Dove. “Well, let him eat; I 
suppose he is hungry,” replied the Pawnee, 
as he turned over and soon began to snore. 

To Dove there was something strangely 
familiar about the man at the fire, and but 
for the long hair she would have taken him 
for Hawk, so she sat up in the bed and 
watched his actions. 

When the strange Indian had eaten and 
was lighting his pipe, he blew upon the 
live coal at the end of the stick he had taken 

up for the purpose and in its light turned 
203 


HAWK: THE YOUNG OSAGE 


his face squarely toward Dove, at the same 
time making the sign “ I am Osage,” by 
passing his right hand from his forehead 
to the top of his head, as though rubbing 
the crest of short hair worn by the Osage 
warriors. Dove recognized her husband at 
once and rapidly returned the sign. She 
kept quite still, although her heart was 
beating so loudly she thought the man at 
her side must hear it. Her eyes were fixed 
on Hawk and she held herself ready to 
second any move he might make, for she 
felt that now was the time he had selected 
to attempt her rescue. 

Soon her Pawnee husband began to 
breathe deeply and then to snore loudly. 
As soon as it was apparent that he was 
soundly asleep. Hawk arose silently to his 
feet with a spear in his hand, and, crouch- 
ing low, approached the bed. He bent 
204 


A WAR PARTY OF ONE 


above the sleeper for a moment to ascertain 
exactly the position of the broad naked 
breast, then, rising to his full height, 
plunged the spear with all his force into 
the body. At the same moment Dove 
placed one hand over the mouth of the 
Pawnee and grasped his throat with the 
other with all her strength, to prevent his 
making any outcry. The warrior made two 
or three convulsive struggles and then lay 
perfectly still, for he was dead. His own 
spear had passed entirely through his body 
and into the ground, pinning him fast. 

Hawk made no attempt to withdraw the 
spear, but drew his knife to remove the 
scalp. Dove caught hold of the knife and 
made a sign that she wanted it. Hawk 
yielded it to her, and she scalped the Paw- 
nee herself. Not so expertly, perhaps, as 
her husband would have done; but she did 
205 


HAWK; THE YOUNG OSAGE 

it, and, at a sign from him, hung it at her 
belt. 

Hawk now peered cautiously from the 
door of the ti-pi and found no one in sight. 
The rain was keeping the villagers within 
doors. Dove picked up her robe and crept 
from the tent after her husband, stopping 
to secure the package of dried meat and 
corn she had secreted. In a moment they 
reached the edge of the ravine and to pre- 
vent any possible traces of her moccasins 
being seen. Hawk carried her down to the 
river, where they entered the water, and in 
a few minutes both were safely within the 
shelter of the cave. 

They lay with their arms around each 
other all night, but each had too much to 
tell the other to think of sleep. Dove’s first 
inquiry was about the babies, and when told 
that they were both well, as were also her 
206 


A WAR PARTY OF ONE 

father and mother, when her husband left 
the Osage village, she snuggled herself in 
his arms like a lost bird that has found its 
nest and listened to the story of his adven- 
tures. 

When he had concluded, she said: “ Mr. 
Hawk, you may . say what you please, but 
you never could have accomplished all these 
things if you had not been aided by the 
spirit in your mystery bag. The spirit of 
the spring may have helped also, but I 
think your mystery bag is your great medi- 
cine.” Hawk did not dispute her assertion, 
for he felt that he must have been aided by 
some superhuman power; but he was in- 
clined to think the spirit of the spring had 
either made the cave for his use or had lead 
him to its discovery, but he was too happy 
to tell Dove what he thought about it. 


207 


HAWK: THE YOUNG OSAGE 


CHAPTER XIII 

A DANGEROUS POSITION 

E arly next morning Hawk and 
Dove heard frantic yells in the 
direction of the village, which in- 
dicated that some early caller at the ti-pi of 
The-One-Who-Kills-Osages had discovered 
the body of that renowned warrior. They 
knew that the absence of Dove and the find- 
ing in the body of the Pawnee his own 
spear with which he had killed the Osage 
woman, would at once inform them that 
the mysterious spirit to whom they had at- 
tributed the disappearance of so many of 
the tribe, was, in fact, an Osage warrior. 
They knew, too, that all the energy of every 

warrior of the Pawnee tribe would be put 
208 


A DANGEROUS POSITION 


forth to kill or capture the perpetrator of 
these murders, and that death by the most 
horrible torture awaited them both, if cap- 
tured. 

Hundreds of the most expert trackers 
and swiftest runners of the tribe would 
scour every inch of the ground around the 
village for many miles, and a large war- 
party would proceed at once toward the 
Osage country. To now attempt to reach 
their village, would for Hawk and Dove, 
mean certain capture. 

This gave them little concern, however. 
They were comfortably situated with no 
fear of discovery; had food sufficient for 
a number of days, and, better than all else, 
they had each other; so they remained 
quietly in the cave, sleeping soundly at 
night and talking in whispers or sleeping 
during the day. 


209 


HAWK: THE YOUNG OSAGE 

They smiled at each other when they 
heard from time to time the yells of dis- 
appointed rage which announced the un- 
successful return of one searching party 
after another. 

Hawk did not venture to leave the cave, 
for he had no intention of imperilling his 
present security by any rash adventure 
which might by chance reveal him to his 
enemies. 

Thus more than a week passed and the 
village had settled down to its usual quiet. 
The large war-party which had gone 
toward the Osage villages was still absent, 
but it was known that nothing had yet been 
accomplished by it, as otherwise, runners 
would have returned to announce their suc- 
cess. Most of the other searchers had re- 
turned, however, and their failure to dis- 
cover any trace of the fugitives would have 
210 


A DANGEROUS POSITION 


revived the spirit theory but for the fact 
of the very material spear with which the 
last victim had been killed and the absence 
of the scalp from his body. As it was, quite 
a number argued that the Osage warrior 
had made such powerful medicine that he 
had compelled the spirits to carry him away 
through the air that he might leave no 
traces. 

Hawk now began to think of leaving his 
refuge and attempting to reach the Osage 
country before their supply of food should 
be exhausted, and was only waiting for 
favorable conditions. 

One evening closed in with a terrible 
storm which threatened to last all night, so, 
soon after dark, their small stock of food 
was made into a package and lashed upon 
Dove’s shoulders, while Hawk placed the 

bundle containing his wife’s robe and his 
211 


HAWK: THE YOUNG OSAGE 

own weapons on his. They dived through 
the entrance of the cave into the river and 
swam down for a long distance close to the 
shore under the bluff, that they might es- 
cape the observation of any village guard 
who might remain on duty in spite of the 
storm. 

When they finally landed it was on the 
opposite side of the river, and instead of 
striking out directly for the Osage country. 
Hawk headed for the south. He feared 
that on the direct route their trail might be 
discovered by some of the Pawnee warriors 
who had gone in that direction and were 
not yet back at the village; and he reasoned 
also that far to the south they might fall in 
with the large hunting party of Osages 
which was due to return to their village 
soon. They travelled all night, hiding in a 

close thicket during the next day, and after 
212 


A DANGEROUS POSITION 


several nights’ travel, reached the waters of 
Walnut Creek, a stream which falls into 
the Arkansas River a few miles south of 
the present site of Arkansas City, Kansas. 

Their small supply of food was now ex- 
hausted and Hawk killed a deer just at day- 
light. They ventured to kindle a fire with 
very dry wood which would make but little 
smoke, and in the depths of a large thicket 
they spent the day eating, resting, sleeping 
and drying a supply of meat for their 
further journey. 

They kept on down the valley of Walnut 
Creek for several days and when they 
reached the Arkansas, crossed that river on 
a log at night, then kept on down its south- 
ern bank. 

They were now in a region where there 
was little to fear from the Pawnees, so they 

travelled most of the day and slept at night. 

213 


HAWK: THE YOUNG OSAGE 


They also made fires to cook the game 
which Hawk killed from time to time. 

After a couple of days Hawk climbed a 
steep bluff near which they encamped in 
the evening. It was just after dark, and 
to his surprise, he saw the light of several 
camp-fires about two miles further down 
the river. These indicated that a large 
party was encamped at the place, but 
whether of friends or foes he was unable to 
determine. 

He reported this news to Dove and told 
her he hoped it might prove to be the re- 
turning Osage hunters, but as this was not 
certain and they might prove to be enemies, 
he proposed to approach the encampment 
near enough to ascertain who they were. 
He said she could remain where she was 
and if he did not return within a few hours, 

she should strike off toward the south until 
214 


A DANGEROUS POSITION 


she reached the waters of the Cimmarron, 
which she should follow until it entered the 
Arkansas, when she would not be far from 
home and was acquainted with the country. 

Dove usually obeyed the slightest request 
or suggestion from her husband, but to this 
proposition she strongly demurred. She 
said she was not going to risk losing him 
again and would not now lose sight of him. 
She declared that if he compelled her to 
remain she would stay until morning and if 
he did not return, she would march straight 
into the camp of the enemy and give her- 
self up, as she would not live if he should 
be killed or captured by the Pawnees. 

Hawk could not resist such pleading and 
together they started toward the fires. 
Their approach was slow and cautious, but 
they could not get near enough under cover 

to determine to what tribe the party be- 
215 


HAWK: THE YOUNG OSAGE 

longed. They could see the forms of 
women as well as men around the fires, and 
this showed that it was not a war-party; 
and, from the form of some of the brush 
shelters. Hawk thought the people were 
Osages. After waiting a while and learn- 
ing nothing more, he concluded that there 
must be scouts on the outskirts of the camp 
and he gave three low calls of a common 
night bird, repeating with two calls after a 
few minutes. This was a signal often em- 
ployed by the Osages to communicate with 
a camp. After the second call he was an- 
swered by the same note from a short dis- 
tance to the right. When he made the sig- 
nal again a guard approached from that 
direction and said in a low voice, “ Who is 
my brother? ” When he gave his name the 
guard was astonished, and when he found 

Dove in his company, his wonder was great. 

216 


A DANGEROUS POSITION 


Without asking any questions he took them 
at once to the camp, where they were im- 
mediately surrounded by their friends, for 
it was the returning Osage hunting party 
upon which they had so fortunately fallen. 

They were given a plentiful meal and the 
whole night was spent in feasting and re- 
joicing, for the Osage party had been in- 
formed by a runner from the village of the 
capture of Dove and the disappearance of 
Hawk, and they had given up the one as 
lost and the other as dead. 

All danger and trouble was now over. 
In a few days they reached the village and 
Dove clasped her children in her arms. 

On the evening after his return Hawk 
related his story at the Council meeting, 
and nearly earned the reputation of being 
a great liar, but when he exhibited eight 

Pawnee scalps and told them that Dove had 
217 


HAWK: THE YOUNG OSAGE 


that of Haw-che-ke-sug-ga, The-Killer-of- 
Osages, which she had taken herself, a 
grand scalp dance was ordered by the 
Council for the succeeding two nights, at 
which Hawk was to be the guest of honor 
the first night and Dove the second. It was 
also ordered that in consideration of the 
part Dove had taken in the killing and 
scalping of Haw-che-ke-sug-ga, she might 
carry his scalp in the dance, wear a 
red feather with a notch in it in her hair, 
and relate her story at the dance like a 
warrior; an honor never before conferred 
upon an Osage woman. 

The first night of the scalp dance Hawk 
was compelled to relate over and over 
again, in words and pantomime, the story 
of his adventures from the time Dove was 
missed until the meeting with the hunting 

party on the banks of the Arkansas River. 

218 


A DANGEROUS POSITION 


He was cheered to the echo as he described 
the killing of each Pawnee warrior, and the 
audience went wild with laughter when, 
after relating his meeting with his first vic- 
tim, he drew forth the skin from the head 
of that unfortunate Pawnee, adjusted it over 
his own short locks with the long hair on 
each side of his shoulders and showed them 
how he afterwards personated a Pawnee. 
When he told how he had entered the ti-pi 
of Haw-che-ke-sug-ga, eaten his food, 
smoked his pipe and then killed him with 
his own spear — the one which had been 
found in the body of Hawk’s mother — of 
the part played by Dove in the final trag- 
edy, every warrior yelled until his voice 
was gone. 

The next night Dove had an ovation. 
She appeared in her best clothes and all the 

ornaments she and her mother possessed, 
219 


HAWK: THE YOUNG OSAGE 

and nearly every woman in the tribe of- 
fered her the loan of ornaments that she 
might do honor to her sex and the occasion. 

When the time came for her to appear 
alone in the center of the circle, she was a 
little timid at first, but when she glanced 
at Hawk and saw the proud light in his 
eyes, all her courage returned. 

She told the story of the capture of her- 
self and her mother-in-law in the berry 
patch and of the efforts made by both to 
mark the trail, for she had indeed dropped 
the copper bracelet when first captured for 
that very purpose as Hawk had conjectured. 
She related the death of the elder woman 
when detected in breaking and dropping 
twigs, and of the indignities and cruelties 
she had endured while on the march and 
after her arrival at the Pawnee village. By 

this time she had forgotten her bashfulness 
220 


A DANGEROUS POSITION 


and her voice was loud and shrill, for it 
seemed to her these scenes were being 
enacted over again. The responses of the 
spectators to this part of the story were 
howls of rage. She told of being taken as 
a wife by Haw-che-ke-sug-ga, his cruelty 
and her submission on account of the hope- 
lessness of her situation, although with 
hatred in her heart. 

She told of the consternation of the Paw- 
nees when the mysterious disappearances 
began and their horror as they continued; 
but she said she was sure all the time it was 
Hawk, for there never was so brave and 
smart a man as her husband, and that soon 
after the disappearance of the first victim, 
she began to conceal food and went about 
with a joyful heart, being sure he would 
finally rescue her. 

She told of his bravery in entering the 
221 


HAWK: THE YOUNG OSAGE 

ti-pi of her Pawnee husband, and making 
the Osage sign to her when he lighted the 
pipe, and how she held herself in readiness 
to aid him, if necessary, in the final tragedy; 
and she held up the scalp of The-Killer- 
of-Osages and screamed out that the hap- 
piest moment of her life was when she 
grasped her oppressor by the throat to pre- 
vent his outcry and felt his life go out under 
her hand. 

At the conclusion of her narrative shout 
after shout went up, and this time it was the 
women who made themselves hoarse. 

This festival was long known in Osage 
tradition as “ The Woman’s Scalp Dance.” 


222 


WHITE MEN 


CHAPTER XIVi 

WHITE MEN 

T he next spring after Dove’s cap- 
ture, Hawk, who wanted some 
summer hides and skins of buf- 
falo calves, accompanied a small hunting 
party to the plains west of the Arkansas 
River, in search of them. 

Other Indians had been before them, 
however, and had driven the buffaloes 
away. The party followed up the South 
Fork of the Canadian River far to the west, 
and when in what is now known as the 
Pan-Handle of Texas, they were surprised 
by a large band of Comanches. The 
Osages, as usual, fought bravely but were 

greatly outnumbered; many of their war- 
223 


HAWK: THE YOUNG OSAGE 

riors were killed and the survivors made a 
hasty retreat, leaving Hawk and one or two 
others in the hands of the enemy as pris- 
oners. The other Osage prisoners, being 
dangerously wounded, were at once killed 
and scalped by the Comanches, but Hawk, 
who had only been stunned, was carried 
with them, they intending to take him to 
their village for adoption when the hunt 
was completed. 

The returned Osages assured Dove that 
she was a widow, as they were sure the 
Comanches would put Hawk to death, but 
this she refused to believe, and asserted that 
her husband was so smart he was sure to 
escape and return home. The summer wore 
away, however, and when the fall came and 
no Hawk, she about gave up all hope and 
was on the point of going into mourning 

for him in Osage fashion, by cutting off her 
224 


WHITE MEN 


hair and gashing her breasts and limbs ; but 
she could not bear to give up all hope, and 
so the mourning was deferred. 

In the spring of 1540, an expedition un- 
der the command of Vazquez de Coronado, 
left Mexico, then called New Spain, to con- 
quer the seven cities of Cibola, in what is 
now New Mexico and Arizona. Friar 
Marcos de Niza had visited the region 
about a year before and claimed to have 
seen one or two of the cities from a moun- 
tain top. He said they were walled and 
fortified, and contained great quantities of 
gold, silver and precious stones. Accord- 
ing to his statement, gold was so plentiful 
that the inhabitants used it in the manufac- 
ture of vessels, for domestic use as well as 
for making ornaments, and had no knowl- 
edge of its value. 

So much gold had recently been found in 
225 


HAWK: THE YOUNG OSAGE 

Peru by Pizarro that the story of Friar 
Marcos was regarded as undoubtedly true, 
and a force of about two hundred and fifty 
horsemen and as many foot, with perhaps 
an equal number of Mexican Indians, 
started from Culican in New Spain in 
April, 1540, to explore the country far to 
the northeast, conquer these wonderful 
cities, subjecting them to the dominion of 
the Spanish king, and to spoil the temples 
and pillage the inhabitants. ‘ 

This small army encountered great hard- 
ships in its march across the barren deserts 
of Arizona, but finally reached the Cibola 
cities, which they found to be merely the 
communal house of various Pueblo tribes, 
the ancestors of our Zuni and Hopi Indians. 

After a few battles in which the Indians 
found their arrows and spears were harm- 
less against the iron armor of the horsemen 
226 


WHITE MEN 

who rode them down without regard to 
their feeble weapons, and that the muskets 
of the foot soldiers were far superior to their 
own arms, they submitted and agreed to 
acknowledge the king of Spain as their 
ruler; but the victors were greatly sur- 
prised to find neither gold nor silver, and 
to learn that the Indians had no knowledge 
of such metals, while the only things re- 
sembling precious stones were turquoises, 
which were somewhat abundant, and were 
used by the Cibola people as ornaments. 

A small party was sent out to explore the 
buffalo plains east of the Pueblo region, 
and on its return, the army went into win- 
ter quarters, driving the Indians from their 
pueblos and using these. 

Food was quite plentiful, for those In- 
dians cultivated corn and several vegetables, 

and game abounded in the mountains. 

227 


HAWK; THE YOUNG OSAGE 

During the winter Coronado purchased 
from one of the Shoshonean tribes, whose 
territory lay north and east of the Pueblos 
and extended into the buffalo plains, a 
Pawnee who was a prisoner among them. 
To this Indian the Spaniards gave the name 
of The Turk. He soon found that what the 
Spaniards most desired was gold, and 
hoping to induce them to carry him back 
toward his own country and that he would 
then find an opportunity to escape, he told 
them, through an interpreter, marvellous 
stories of a country far to the east which he 
said was called Quivira. He said gold and 
silver existed there in wonderful quantities, 
so plentiful, indeed, that the inhabitants 
would be obliged to them if they would 
take some of it away. 

Taking The Turk for a guide, Coronado 

left the Pueblo region in April, 1541, and 
228 


WHITE MEN 


marched toward the east in search of Qui- 
vira. They followed down the South Fork 
of the Canadian, and after several weeks’ 
journey, they fell in with the hunting party 
of Comanches who held Hawk as a pris- 
oner. They were easily persuaded to sell 
him to the Spaniards for a few trinkets. 
The Comanches were unable to tell Coro- 
nado anything about Quivira, and said they 
had never heard of it, but that their pris- 
oner was from the east and might know 
something in regard to the rich country of 
which the Spaniards were in search. 
Hawk did not confirm the stories told by 
The Turk, but said there was no such coun- 
try to the east; simply buffalo plains, the 
inhabitants of which lived, for the most 
part, in skin tents, engaging but little in 
agriculture, and he had never before heard 

of either gold or silver. He was shown 
229 


HAWK: THE YOUNG OSAGE 


some coins and declared he had never seen 
either of the metals before. Being con- 
fronted with The Turk, he recognized him 
as a Pawnee, and boldly told him that he 
was a liar. 

Hawk was named Yosepte by the Span- 
iards, and on hearing his story The Turk 
was put to the torture and confessed that all 
he had told them was untrue, but that about 
a month’s journey to the north was a peo- 
ple who had permanent houses, engaged 
* largely in agriculture, and he had been told, 
had plenty of gold and silver. 

The enraged Spaniards put The Turk to 
death, permitting Hawk to act as his execu- 
tioner and to take his scalp as a trophy, and 
Coronado, sending all his army but thirty 
horsemen back to the Pueblo country, 
mounted Hawk for a guide and with these 

made the journey north to the Indian vil- 
230 


WHITE MEN 


lages in the neighborhood of where the city 
of Topeka, Kansas, now stands. He found 
the inhabitants simply plain Indians, as 
Hawk had stated, and totally unacquainted 
with the precious metals. After a few 
weeks’ rest at these villages, he turned back 
to join his army at the Cibola cities, and 
shortly after returned to Mexico. 

Hawk was well treated by the Spaniards, 
who made him numerous presents of silver 
coins, small crosses of the same metal and 
other trinkets, and, when on his way to the 
Pueblos, Coronado reached the Arkansas 
River at Great Bend, he set Hawk free, 
making him a present of some gold coins, a 
sword and a fine dagger with a jewelled 
hilt on which was engraved the name of 
“ Vazquez de Coronado.” 

During his stay of some months with the 

Spaniards, Hawk had learned a good deal 
231 


HAWK: THE YOUNG OSAGE 

of their language. Friar Juan de Padilla, 
a priest who had accompanied the Cor- 
onado expedition in the search for Quivira, 
was very anxious for Hawk’s conversion to 
Christianity, and tried many times to ex- 
plain to him the mysteries of that religion. 
Hawk, who was good-natured and was 
kindly treated, desired to please the priest, 
and, without understanding in the least the 
nature of the ceremony, agreed that the 
good Padre might baptize him. He was 
greatly awed and somewhat mystified by 
the solemn ceremony, which was performed 
in the presence of all the company. The 
priest wrote and gave him a certificate of 
baptism under the name of Yosepte, made 
him a present of his own rosary having a 
golden crucifix with a figure of Christ 
thereon, and taught him to repeat the Pater 

Noster in Latin and to pray by the use of 
232 


WHITE MEN 


the beads. Hawk knew absolutely nothing 
of the religion the good Padre tried to teach 
him, but he regarded the rosary as belong- 
ing to the powerful and mysterious medi- 
cine of the white man, and he frequently 
repeated the Pater Noster, regarding it as 
great medicine.” 

When released by the Spaniards, Hawk 
made his way down the Arkansas River, 
travelling mostly at night, until he reached 
the territory of his own tribe. When he 
reached home, he found Dove, as has been 
related, about to go into mourning for him. 
She was now nearly beside herself with joy 
at her husband’s return as one from the 
dead, but again she attributed his preserva- 
tion to the all powerful mystery bag. 

It was soon noised through the village 
that Hawk had returned, and the lodge 

filled with visitors who came to hear the 
233 


HAWK: THE YOUNG OSAGE 


marvels he related. He exhibited his pres- 
ents and told them of the wonderful white 
men with hair on their faces. Most of his 
stories were so incredible that had it not 
been for the weapons, coins and trinkets he 
exhibited in corroboration, he would have 
been pronounced a first-class liar. As it 
was, they did not fully believe his story 
about sticks that spat out fire, made a noise 
like thunder and killed buffaloes at the dis- 
tance of several bow-shots; but when he 
told them of horses, large animals upon 
which men rode and which could outrun a 
buffalo, and averred that he had ridden 
upon one for several weeks, it is doubtful if 
he was fully believed by any but Dove, to 
whom he was infallible. Hawk attempted 
to draw a picture of a horse with charcoal 
on a skin, and from this and his description, 

his auditors concluded that the animal was 
234 


WHITE MEN 


some kind of a large dog, and they ever 
afterwards spoke of them as sun-ka 
wa-kan-da, or mysterious dogs. 

Hawk was only permitted to enjoy a rest 
of a few days, for events soon happened 
which called him from the village; and all 
the Osages were soon to learn much in re- 
gard to both white men and horses. 

A few days after Hawk’s return, a large 
hunting party of Osages returned from an 
expedition to the east and reported that a 
party of several hundred white men was 
approaching, and that they had been in 
battle with them. They confirmed all of 
Hawk’s statements in regard to the armor, 
guns, and horses of these invaders. 

In the battle which ensued when the 
Osages and whites met, a number of In- 
dians had been killed and they, in turn, had 

taken the scalps of several stragglers, but, 
235 


HAWK: THE YOUNG OSAGE 


as their numbers had been greatly inferior 

% 

to those of the invaders, they had hastily re- 
turned to the village, bringing with them 
one prisoner, whose strange conduct had 
led them to believe he was insane, and, 
therefore, under the protection of the spirits 
and not to be harmed. 

A Council was called immediately and 
it was ordered that messengers be sent at 
once to all the Osage villages, calling out 
every able-bodied warrior to assist in repel- 
ling these invaders. 


236 


HERNANDO DE SOTO 


CHAPTER XV 

HERNANDO DE SOTO 

I N the spring of 1539, Hernando de 
Soto sailed from Havana, Cuba, with 
a force of five hundred and seventy 
men and two hundred and thirty-three 
horses, to explore the country north of the 
Gulf of Mexico, then called Florida. He 
expected to discover large and populous 
cities in which it was supposed gold and 
silver were used in great quantities. He 
landed in Tampa Bay on the west coast of 
the peninsula of Florida, and marched first 
north, then west and south. 

When Cortez invaded Mexico, its inhab- 
itants regarded the Spaniards as supernatu- 
ral beings and were inclined to worship 
237 


HAWK: THE YOUNG OSAGE 

them as gods. They at first thought a horse 
and his rider a mysterious complex or com- 
pound animal. The iron armor of the 
horsemen, impervious to their weapons, 
confused them and the noise of the guns 
rendered them frantic with terror. So 
much were they influenced by their super- 
stitious dread that had it not been for the 
cruelty of the invaders which forced a war, 
they would have submitted to the Spaniards 
without a battle. 

De Soto found, however, in the Musco- 
hegan tribes that inhabited the country 
through which he marched, a very different 
kind of Indians. They were superstitious 
also, but they feared only spirits or super- 
natural beings; nothing in the shape of man 
could terrify them. They soon learned that 
a horse was only a domestic animal larger 

than a dog and that an arrow would kill it. 

238 


HERNANDO DE SOTO 

The noise of an arquebus frightened them 
at first, but they soon discovered that the 
white men were not very good marksmen, 
and that to destroy them they had but to 
hang on their flanks and cut off the strag- 
glers. They waged against the Spaniards 
therefore, this kind of a warfare from their 
landing until they crossed the Mississippi 
River. 

At least one general battle occurred how- 
ever, at the junction of the Alabama and 
Tombigbee Rivers, in which the Spanish 
loss in killed and wounded is reported at 
one hundred and seventy, and they claimed 
to have killed twenty-five hundred In- 
dians. 

After this battle, De Soto marched as 
rapidly as possible toward the northwest, 
and late in the fall of 1540, established 

winter quarters on the east side of the Mis- 
239 


HAWK: THE YOUNG OSAGE 

sissippi, some distance below the present 
city of Memphis, Tennessee. 

Contrary to the ideas we would derive 
from pictures of the discovery of the Missis- 
sippi, there was no ceremony connected 
with it whatever; no masses seem to have 
been celebrated and no cannons fired. De 
Soto had no idea of the importance of his 
discovery; indeed, he regarded the great 
river as merely an obstacle in his path to 
the golden cities he was to find and conquer. 

June i8th, 1541, the Spaniards crossed 
the Mississippi on rafts and boats hastily 
constructed and some Indian canoes. They 
proceeded up the west bank of the river, 
fighting continually with the Indians, to a 
point somewhat below Island Number Ten. 

The tribes encountered west of the river 
belonged to the great Siouan family of In- 
dians, and were even more fierce and war- 
240 


HER.NANDO DE SOTO 


like than those to the east. They assailed 
the invaders daily and fiercely, but Spanish 
arms and discipline prevailed and when a 
tribe or village was conquered, it was com- 
pelled to furnish food for the Spaniards 
and men and women to carry their baggage. 

De Soto had been one of the conquerors 
of Peru as an officer under Pizarro. In that 
country he had secured an immense booty in 
gold by despoiling the temples of the Sun 
and the houses of the Incas and chiefs of 
their vessels and ornaments, and he had 
undertaken this expedition in the hope and 
belief that he would find other temples and 
cities to pillage. He therefore questioned 
all the Indians who fell into his hands and 
frequently put them to the torture to com- 
pel them to tell him where the cities were 
in which he might find gold. At first they 

told him the truth, that there were no such 
241 


HAWK: THE YOUNG OSAGE 

cities and that they had never before heard 
of gold; but as this only brought them tor- 
ture and death, they soon learned that the 
Spaniards would go anywhere if they 
thought they could find gold, and, to get 
rid of their unwelcome visitors, it was only 
necessary to tell them stories of unlimited 
gold and large cities in the west. 

Toward the west then De Soto went, find- 
ing only barbarous tribes without knowl- 
edge of gold. These, however, warned per- 
haps by the interpreters with the Spaniards, 
still told of the precious metal further west, 
and he struggled on, fighting daily and 
nearly starving much of the time. 

At length, in the fall of 1541, he reached 
the borders of what is now the Indian Ter- 
ritory, near the present site of Fort Smith, 
Arkansas. Here he came in contact with 

the hunting party of Osages. They fought 
242 


HERNANDO DE SOTO 


fiercely but were overcome by the Span- 
iards and driven back; but they made all 
speed to their village to rally the whole 
force of the tribe, as we have seen. 

On his march west from the Mississippi, 
De Soto had fought a number of battles 
with the Indians, and while the victory was 
generally with the Spaniards, it was often 
dearly bought. Some of his men were be- 
ing killed or wounded daily and all were 
worn out with the privations and hardships 
they encountered. Food was scarce and 
they dared not scatter to hunt for game as 
all such stragglers were sure to fall victims 
to the Indians who hung about his column 
on all sides. 

The prospect of reaching the golden 
cities seemed no nearer than when they 
landed in Florida some eighteen months be- 
fore. Many of his men were sick and De 
243 


HAWK: THE YOUNG OSAGE 

Soto’s own health was breaking down. The 
Spaniards were greatly discouraged and 
several of his officers had asked the com- 
mander to make his way south to the Gulf 
of Mexico and there build boats in which 
they might escape the almost certain exter- 
mination which threatened them. 

De Soto listened to the complaints of his 
officers, but insisted that gold in abundance 
would soon be found. Had not Cortez 
found it in Mexico? Balboa in Panama? 
Pizarro in Peru? and were not gold mines 
being worked even in the small island of 
Santo Domingo? Gold had been found in 
every part of the Indies so far explored and 
were they not in the Indies? Had not all 
the Indians with whom they had recently 
come in contact assured them that further 
west there were large cities and gold in 

abundance? They must be near them, for 
244 


HERNANDO DE SOTO 

they had marched a long distance since they 
first heard of them, and it would be foolish 
to turn back now with the prize almost 
within their grasp. He pictured to them 
the pleasures they might enjoy upon re- 
turning to Spain enriched by the spoils of 
these cities and the heathen temples they 
would doubtless find in them. It was only 
necessary that they persevere a little longer 
and wealth untold would be theirs. True, 
the men and horses were exhausted and 
nearly starving and they were surrounded 
by the most warlike and ferocious Indians 
they had yet met, but he would learn of 
some locality where corn might be found in 
plenty, there they would remain until 
spring and then push on to success. He as- 
sured them that if anything happened to 
convince him that these cities were mythical 

and that a farther search for them was 
245 


HAWK: THE YOUNG OSAGE 


hopeless, he would at once turn either 
toward the Gulf or the Mississippi and 
abandon the object of the expedition. 

De Soto was a magnetic man and a great 
commander. His officers were silenced if 
not satisfied, and it was agreed that after a 
short rest where they were, they should find 
some locality suitable for them to spend the 
winter. 


246 


THE PRISONER 


CHAPTER XVI 

THE PRISONER 

A fter the Council meeting at the 
Osage village, Hawk made farther 
inquiry in regard to the prisoner 
who was supposed to be insane. He was 
told that when captured the man was with- 
out arms and was not dressed like the white 
warriors, having a long black robe; that 
he appeared to have been scalped, as the 
top of his head was bare; but, strangest of 
all, he wore a long string of beads with a 
piece of bright metal attached, and to this 
he talked continually, remaining all the 
while on his knees. Many thought from 

these strange actions that he must be insane, 
247 


HAWK: THE YOUNG OSAGE 

and among all the Indian tribes a man who 
had lost his mind was regarded as sacred 
and he must on no account be injured. 

Hawk knew at once from the description 
that the man was a Spanish priest. He 
immediately sought the head chief, and 
after relating part of his own adventures 
with Coronado and stating that he could 
talk the white man’s language, asked per- 
mission to visit the prisoner. The chief 
told Hawk that the arms of the white men 
were too powerful for the Indians, but they 
must kill every prisoner and keep up the 
war until the invaders, losing their men one 
by one, should become discouraged and 
leave the country. Hawk said : “ My father, 
the prisoner is one of the great medicine 
men of the whites, and if I can see him I 
hope to secure his aid in a plan to induce 

these invaders to return to their own land.” 

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THE PRISONER 


On this the chief gave him permission to 
talk to the prisoner, who was under guard 
near the Council House. He found him 
securely tied to a tree, but on his knees tell- 
ing his beads, the crucifix in his hand and 
his eyes toward Heaven, while he rapidly 
repeated Latin prayers. He had been in- 
formed that he was to be burned alive the 
next morning, and the poor priest was 
nearly insane with terror. 

He did not pay any attention to Hawk’s 
approach, taking him only for another of 
his tormentors ; but continued his Ave 
Marias and Pater Nosters. The Osage 
stood before him a moment and then said: 
“Buenos noches. Padre” (Good evening. 
Father) in very good Spanish. The aston- 
ishment of the poor priest was beyond 
bounds. His prayers ceased, and he poured 

forth such a volume of Spanish that Hawk 
249 


HAWK: THE YOUNG OSAGE 


could not follow him and could only under- 
stand that he was begging that his life be 
saved. 

Hawk assured him he would do all he 
could to save him, showed him his own 
rosary, crucifix, certificate of baptism and 
the dagger and coins given him by Coro- 
nado. The priest was very curious in re- 
gard to the Coronado expedition and its suc- 
cess, as before he left Havana he had 
learned that an expedition was preparing 
to leave Mexico for the conquest of the 
Seven Cities of Cibola. He wanted to 
know particularly if Coronado had found 
much gold. Hawk told him that the Span- 
iards had found and conquered these cities 
but did not find an ounce of gold ; that they 
had then marched many hundreds of miles 
east and northeast, finding no gold and only 

barren plains, and that becoming satisfied 
250 


THE PRISONER 

no gold existed in the country, Coronado 
and his men had returned to Mexico. 

The priest said: “ My son, is there indeed 
no gold in this country? ” Hawk told him 
none whatever and no cities, only barren 
plains without much water and no food ex- 
cept the buffaloes which roamed over them. 
The Padre said : “ My son, I believe you 
are telling the truth. What do the Indians 
want?” The Osage replied: “My father, 
this land belongs to my people. They are 
poor, but they love their homes and they 
want the white men to leave them and re- 
turn to their own country.” The priest 
said : “ My son, if you will save my life and 
go with me to our commander, I think he 
will believe you and when he becomes sat- 
isfied no gold can be found he will return 
whence we came and leave the Indians in 
peace.” 


251 


HAWK: THE YOUNG OSAGE 


A number of the chiefs had gathered in 
the lodge while this conversation had pro- 
gressed and Hawk explained to them the 
substance of what had been said by the priest 
and asked that he be untied, that food be 
given him and that he be made comfortable, 
and this was done. 

The chief asked Hawk to attend the 
Council meeting that night and explain 
more fully the conversation he had with 
the prisoner. 

At the Council Hawk was almost the 
only speaker, except for a few questions the 
others remaining silent. He said: “My 
fathers, it is known to you that I was 
wounded and captured by the Comanches. 
They did not treat me unkindly, their in- 
tention being to adopt me into the tribe. 
They carried me far to the west and I have 

seen many things. After many days’ jour- 
252 


THE PRISONER 

ney the Comanche party fell in with a large 
body of white men like those who have now 
invaded the Osage country. I need not de- 
scribe them, for you have seen them and our 
young men have met them in battle. This 
party had come from far to the southwest 
where many white men live, and had con- 
quered all the countries through which they 
marched. Their bodies were covered with 
clothing of metal which the Indian arrows 
would not penetrate, their knives were long 
and sharp, and they had hollow metal sticks 
which spat out fire, made a noise like thun- 
der and sent a small metal ball a long dis- 
tance so that it would kill an Indian at the 
distance of two bow-shots. The chief of 
these white men purchased me from the 
Comanches, intending to have me taught 
the language of the white men and act as 

their interpreter. The chief was kind to 
253 


HAWK: THE YOUNG OSAGE 

me and caused me to ride on one of the 
large animals you call sunka wakanda or 
mysterious dogs, but which are horses; and 
he always kept me near him. As soon as I 
had learned a little of their language, the 
chief told me many things and asked me 
many questions about large towns toward 
the' east where there was much gold. I told 
him truly there were no large towns, only 
great plains, and buffaloes upon which the 
Indians subsisted, and as for gold, I had 
never heard of it. He showed me some 
small pieces of yellow metal like these,” — 
exhibiting a couple of coins, — “ and I told 
him I had never seen or heard of it before; 
that the only metal I had ever seen was red 
like that on some of their armor and which 
they called copper, and that this came from 
a country far to the northeast. 

“ He had another captive, a Pawnee, who 
254 


THE PRISONER 

had told him these lies about large towns 
and gold. 

“ After many days’ journey toward the 
east, we met other Indians, who confirmed 
my statement, and the white chief was very 
angry at the Pawnee for his lies and or- 
dered me to kill him, which I was very 
glad to do — for was he not a Pawnee? — 
and here is his scalp. The white chief then 
made me guide him far to the north, where 
he found some small towns but no gold. 
The white men were then discouraged and 
turned back to their own country, releasing 
me at the crossing of our river but far 
toward its head. The white chief and his 
men gave me many presents, some of which 
you have seen. With the whites was a great 
medicine-man called Padre Juan de Pa- 
dilla. He dressed in a long robe and the 

top of his head was bare, but he had not 
255 


HAWK: THE YOUNG OSAGE 


been scalped. These medicine-men do not 
fight as warriors like ours do, and to show 
this the top of the head is shaved so that 
they have no scalp-lock for an enemy to 
grasp. They accompany the warriors on 
the war-path, but only to work their charms 
and medicine for the success of the war- 
party and the discomfiture of their enemies. 

“ Among the Indians there are many 
fetiches, each warrior having the mystery 
bag given him at his initiation, but the 
whites have only one which they all wor- 
ship. It is the yellow metal they call gold. 
Of this they make charms of small round 
pieces like those I but now showed you, but 
their most powerful fetich is like the one 
you saw on the prisoner’s string of beads. 
They recite their incantations and talk to 
this every day in a language different from 

that usually spoken, as our own medicine- 
256 


THE PRISONER 

men talk to the spirits. This fetich is very 
powerful and it tells them how to make 
wonderful arms and the clothes which ar- 
rows will not enter. The strongest fetiches 
are made of gold and each man desires to 
have one ; but as all the gold in the country 
of the whites has been exhausted, they go 
to other countries in search of this object 
which they worship, and will brave all dan- 
gers and suffer all hardships to procure it. 

“This Padre, Juan de Padilla, was very 
kind to me. He caused me to ride beside 
him and taught me daily the white man’s 
language. When I had learned enough of 
it, he explained to me the mystery of his 
medicine and gave me one of his gods. 
Here it is.” 

At this Hawk produced his rosary and 
crucifix and offered it to the nearest Indian 

for inspection; but the man drew back and 
257 


HAWK: THE YOUNG OSAGE 


he could get none of them to touch it. In- 
deed, it seemed at first there would be a 
stampede from the Council House, but 
when assured by Hawk that he could con- 
trol the spirit and it would do them no 
harm, each warrior walked slowly past and 
gazed with awe upon the god of the white 
man. 

Hawk then told them that their prisoner 
was a Padre like Juan de Padilla. He said 
these medicine-men were very powerful 
among the whites and the greatest chiefs 
did not dare to disobey them. He said: 
“ My fathers, I have convinced this Padre 
that I understand his mysteries and he there- 
fore believes my statement that there is no 
gold to be found in this country for making 
gods and has promised me that if his life 
is spared and he is released he will aid me 

to convince the chief of the white men that 
258 


THE PRISONER 

further advance is useless and he will order 
him to return to the white man’s country. 
My fathers, I have spoken.” 

There was but little debate in the Coun- 
cil, although some questions were asked 
which were answered by Hawk, and it was 
voted that the prisoner should be released 
and Hawk should accompany him on the 
following day to the camp of the Spaniards 
for the purpose of interviewing De Soto. 

The statement of Hawk that he had been 
taught the secrets of the white man’s medi- 
cine and his possession of the mysterious 
rosary and crucifix, had added not a little 
to his standing in the estimation of the war- 
riors, and some of them even regarded him 
with awe. 


259 


HAWK: THE YOUNG OSAGE 


CHAPTER XVII 

SUCCESS 

E arly next morning the principal 
chiefs, accompanied by Hawk and 
the Padre, started down the Ar- 
kansas River in canoes. A short halt was 
made at the camp of the Osages, who were 
about to commence another attack upon the 
Spaniards. They desisted, however, from 
this at the command of the head chief, who 
desired first to try the eflFect of Hawk’s 
diplomacy, as outlined the night before. 

Re-embarking in one of the canoes, Hawk 
and the Franciscan soon reached the Span- 
ish outposts and were at once conducted to 
the presence of De Soto. The Padre intro- 
duced Hawk as Yosepte, a baptized Chris- 
260 


SUCCESS 


tian who could talk the Spanish language 
and had recently been interpreter for an 
expedition sent out from Mexico under the 
command of Vazquez de Coronado. He 
also said Yosepte had saved the priest him- 
self from being burned at the stake. 

Hawk addressed the white commander in 
fairly good Spanish, bowing before him as 
he had been taught was proper in the pres- 
ence of a superior, and he exhibited his 
rosary, crucifix and coins, and the dagger 
given him by Coronado. He also showed 
his certificate of baptism, and thinking it 
was a good opportunity to air his accom- 
plishments, crossed himself and repeated 
the Pater Noster. His Latin was most 
likely a little faulty, but it was probably as 
good as De Soto’s. Hawk’s credentials 
were convincing. All the officers gathered 

around him and he was questioned far into 
261 


HAWK: THE YOUNG OSAGE 

the night concerning the Coronado expedi- 
tion and its results. All were convinced of 
the truth of Yosepte’s statements. They 
were satisfied, too, that their own expedition 
was likewise a failure and that no gold was 
to be obtained. When Hawk told them 
that toward the west they would find only 
barren plains and at the end of many weeks’ 
journey merely the Pueblo towns without 
gold and already subjected to Spanish rule 
by Coronado, the officers again renewed 
their request that they be led to the Gulf or 
the Mississippi. De Soto replied that a 
council would be held the next morning. 

Hawk returned to the Osage camp after 
promising a visit to the Spaniards for the 
next morning. He reported to the chiefs 
the progress of his negotiations and told 
them the white men were much discour- 
aged and he thought they would decide to 
262 


SUCCESS 

return to their own country. The Council 
gave him full power to conclude any treaty 
with the Spaniards which would produce 
that result, and there was much rejoicing 
in the Osage camp over the prospect that 
the invaders would soon leave the country. 

The next morning De Soto called a coun- 
cil of his officers and the situation was dis- 
cussed. There was no dissenting voice as 
to the course which should be adopted, but 
the men were exhausted, the horses nearly 
starved and they were not able to proceed 
so far as the Mississippi. The winter was 
upon them and to start now for a long 
march in their enfeebled condition, was to 
court disaster and it was certain that few, 
if any, would survive the march, to say noth- 
ing of the continual warfare they were 
likely to have with the Indians. The Padre 

whom Hawk, or Yosepte, had rescued was 
263 


HAWK: THE YOUNG OSAGE 


present and at his suggestion the young 
Osage was sent for. When he came De 
Soto told him the white men had concluded 
to start for their own country as soon as they 
could, but it was now winter and the men 
and horses had nothing to eat. If they 
could find a place where food was plenty 
and they could spend the winter in comfort 
they would, in the spring, depart never to 
return. 

Hawk said his own people were poor; 
they raised little corn, depending, for the 
most part, upon hunting for their support; 
but a few days’ march to the south would 
bring the Spaniards to the country of the 
Caddoes, who raised great quantities of 
corn and vegetables and whose country 
abounded in game. He said his own people 
would strip themselves of provisions to sup- 
ply their immediate wants, would send a 
264 


SUCCESS 

large party to guide them to the Caddo 
country, hunt game for them on their way 
and carry their baggage. 

To this the Spaniards agreed, and when 
Hawk presented the matter to the Osage 
Council, he had little trouble in having his 
agreement ratified. Abundant provisions 
were furnished by the Osage villages, and 
the Spaniards departed for the south, es- 
corted by the now friendly Osages. 

On reaching the Caddo country that tribe 
was at first disposed to be hostile ; but when 
Hawk had explained to them that the 
strangers desired to remain only until 
spring, when they would be forever rid of 
them, and, moreover, if they refused to re- 
ceive and entertain them in a friendly man- 
ner, the whites, having superior arms, 
would certainly take what they wanted by 

force, and the result would be a bloody 
265 


HAWK: THE YOUNG OSAGE 

war in which the Indians were sure to be 
worsted, they reluctantly consented to a 
peace and to supply the Spaniards with 
provisions during the winter. 

When the Osage escort left for their own 
villages, many of them received arms and 
trinkets as presents from the Spaniards. 
De Soto himself gave Hawk a sword, dag- 
ger, lance and some yards of red cotton 
cloth, and, last but not least, a coat or doub- 
let trimmed with gold lace, somewhat tar- 
nished, it is true, but it was long cherished 
by Hawk to be worn on great occasions. 

History relates how the Spanish adven- 
turers in the spring journeyed to the Mis- 
sissippi; how their leader was taken sick 
on the way and carried in a horse litter; 
how he died on reaching the great river 
and was first buried in a hut, but fearing 

that the Indians, who had been told the 
266 


SUCCESS 


commander was immortal and had gone to 
Heaven to bring more Spaniards, should 
learn of his death, his body was taken up at 
night, \Veighted with stones and consigned 
to the depths of the great river he had dis- 
covered. 

History tells, too, of the wanderings of 
the survivors in an attempt to reach Mexico 
by land; and their final return to the Mis- 
sissippi, where they constructed flat-bot- 
tomed boats in which a pitiful remnant of 
the adventurers reach a port of Mexico the 
next fall. 

Hawk and his companions returned to 
the Osage villages as soon as they had con- 
ducted the Spaniards to the Caddo country. 
His success in negotiating the evacuation of 
the country by the whites had greatly raised 
him in the estimation of the tribe. The 

presents he had received easily made him 
267 


HAWK; THE YOUNG OSAGE 

the richest of the Osages, and the possession 
of the mysterious “ medicine,” the rosary 
and crucifix, rendered him not only most 
popular, but a man greatly to be feared. 
He had been able to understand very little 
of Padre Juan de Padilla’s religious instruc- 
tion. He had looked at it entirely from an 
Indian’s point of view. To him the crucifix 
was but another form of “mystery bag,” 
which must certainly contain a powerful 
spirit, since, as he understood, it gave the 
whites their superior weapons and power. 
The Pater Noster taught him by the good 
father, was but the form of incantation to 
be used to invoke the services of the spirit 
embodied in the crucifix. His own bap- 
tism he regarded as simply his initiation 
into the priesthood or society of the medi- 
cine-men of the whites, and he considered 

himself really a Padre, but as he intended 
268 


SUCCESS 

to remain a warrior also, he concluded to 
omit shaving off his scalp-lock. 

The Osages readily adopted the belief 
that Hawk was learned in the medicine of 
the whites, and when any were very sick he 
was called. He would dress himself in his 
gold laced doublet with all his ornaments, 
take the rosary in hand, holding up the 
crucifix and repeating to it Pater Nosters as 
well as he could recollect them. He would 
also rub the cross over the painful or in- 
jured part. After this treatment his pa- 
tients invariably declared they felt much 
better; but Hawk was smart enough to re- 
member the treatment which had cured 
Dove, and whenever he had a pronounced 
case of chills and fever, he supplemented 
the Pater Nosters with a prescription of 
bitter bark to be followed by hot baths and 
broth. 


269 


HAWK: THE YOUNG OSAGE 

Hawk found many uses for the presents 
he had received from the Spaniards. He 
always wore the rosary wrapped two or 
three times around his neck with the cru- 
cifix in front as a pendant. He drilled 
holes in the gold coins and wore three of 
them in the cartilages of each ear. Of the 
silver ones he made a necklace for Dove 
with a small silver cross as a pendant, and 
on high occasions, even the two children 
wore coins in their small ears. He gave a 
dagger to his father and another to Panther, 
his father-in-law; but the sword and lance 
presented by De Soto, and the dagger of 
Coronado, he retained as his own special 
weapons. The flashing of these as he 
wielded them in battles with the neighbor- 
ing tribes, procured for him the name of 
Lightning, and by this he was generally 
known. 


270 


SUCCESS 


In addition to her coin necklace, Dove 
wore numerous other ornaments of Spanish 
manufacture, as did several other Osage 
women ; but none of the others had any red 
cotton cloth, and from the small piece given 
to Hawk she manufactured a wonderful 
skirt, which made her the envied of all the 
women, and this, of course, gave her great 
satisfaction. 

A number of the leading Osage chiefs 
had been killed during the few engage- 
ments with the Spaniards, and during the 
winter Hawk was elected principal war 
chief without opposition. He filled this 
position worthily for many years, leading 
war-parties against the enemies of the tribe. 

He continued to repeat the prayers to his 
crucifix and attributed much of his success 
in life to its powerful influence; but he 

still retained his mystery bag upon his per- 
271 


HAWK; THE YOUNG OSAGE 

son and sometimes said a Pater Noster 
to it. 

Dove, however, was loyal to the Osage 
religion and traditions, and once, when her 
husband told her he thought most of his 
good fortune was due to the possession of 
the rosary and the prayers he said to it, she 
replied: “Mr. Hawk, you may say what 
you please about the white man’s medicine, 
but I shall always believe it was the spirit 
my uncle, the medicine-man, sewed up in 
your mystery bag, brought you every bit of 
the good luck.” 



THE END. 


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THE LITTLE COLONEL’S CHRISTMAS 

(Trade Mark) 

VACATION 

THE LITTLE COLONEL, MAID OF HONOR 

(Trade Mark) 

THE LITTLE COLONEL’S KNIGHT COMES 

(Trade Mark) 

RIDING 

MARY WARE: THE LITTLE COLONEL’S 

CHUM (Trade Mark) 

MARY WARE IN TEXAS 
MARY WARE’S PROMISED LAND 

These 12 volumes, boxed as a set, $18.00. 

A— 1 


Z. C. PAGE «5r- COMPAJVy^S 


THE LITTLE COLONEL 

(Trade Mark) • 

TWO LITTLE KNIGHTS OF KENTUCKY 
THE GIANT SCISSORS 
BIG BROTHER 

Special Holiday Editions 

Each one volume, cloth decorative, small quarto, $1.25 
New plates, handsomely illustrated with eight full-page 
drawings in color, and many marginal sketches. 

IN THE DESERT OF WAITING: The Legend 
OF Camelback Mountain. 

THE THREE WEAVERS: A Fairy Tale for 
Fathers and Mothers as Well as for Their 
Daughters. 

KEEPING TRYST 

THE LEGEND OF THE BLEEDING HEART 
THE RESCUE OF PRINCESS WINSOME: 

A Fairy Play for Old and Young. 

THE JESTER’S SWORD 

Each one volume, tall 16mo, cloth decorative . $0.50 

Paper boards .35 

There has been a constant demand for publication in 
separate form of these six stories which were originally 
included in six of the “ Little Colonel ’ books. 

JOEL: A BOY OF GALILEE: By Annie Fellows 

Johnston. Illustrated by L. J. Bridgman. 

New illustrated edition, uniform with the Little Colonel 
Books, 1 vol., large 12mo, cloth decorative . $1.50 

A story of the time of Christ, which is one of the author’s 
best-known books. 

A— a 


BOOKS FOR YO-UNG PEOPLE 


THE LITTLE COLONEL GOOD TIMES BOOK 

Uniform in size with the Little Colonel Series . $1.50 

Bound in white kid (morocco) and gold . . 3.00 

Cover design and decorations by Peter Verberg. 
Published in response to many inquiries from readers 
of the Little Colonel books as to where they could obtain 
a “ Good Times Book ” such as Betty kept. 

THE LITTLE COLONEL DOLL BOOK 

Large quarto, boards $1.50 

A series of “ Little Colonel ” dolls. There are many of 
them and each has several changes of costume, so that 
the happy group can be appropriately clad for the re- 
hearsal of any scene or incident in the series. 

ASA HOLMES; Or, At the Cross-Roads. By 
Annie Fellows Johnston. 

With a frontispiece by Ernest Fosbery. 

Large 16mo, cloth, gilt top $1.00 

“ ‘ Asa Holmes; or. At the Cross-Roads ’ is the most 
delightful, most sympathetic and wholesome book that 
has been published in a long while.” — Boston Times. 

TRAVELERS FIVE: ALONG LIFE’S HIGH- 
WAY. By Annie Fellows Johnston. 

With an introduction by Bliss Carman, and a frontis- 
piece bv E. H. Garrett. 

Cloth decorative $1.25 

“ Mrs. Johnston’s . . . are of the character that cause 
the mind to grow gravely meditative, the eyes to shine 
with tender mist, and the heart strings to stir to strange, 
sweet music of human sympathy.” — Los Angeles Graphic. 
THE RIVAL CAMPERS; Or, The Adventures 
OF Henry Burns. By Ruel Perley Smith. 

Square 12mo, cloth decorative, illustrated . . $1.50 

A story of a party of typical American lads, courageous, 
alert, and athletic, who spend a summer camping on an 
island off the Maine coast. 

THE RIVAL CAMPERS AFLOAT; Or, Thb 

Prize Yacht Viking. By Ruel Perley Smith. 

Square 12mo, cloth decorative, illustrated . . $1.60 

This book is a continuation of the adventures of “ The 
Rival Campers ” on their prize yacht Viking. 

A— 3 


Z. C. PAGE &> COMPANY'S 


THE RIVAL CAMPERS ASHORE 

By Ruel Perlet Smith. 

Square 12mo, cloth decorative, illustrated , . $1.50 

“ As interesting ashore as when afloat.” — The Interior. 

THE RIVAL CAMPERS AMONG THE 
OYSTER PIRATES; Or, Jack Harvey’s Adven- 
tures. By Ruel Perley Smith. Illustrated . $1,50 

“ Just the type of book which is most popular with lads 
who are in their early teens.” — The Philadelphia Item. 

A TEXAS BLUE BONNET 

By Caroline Emilia Jacobs (Emilia Elliott). 

12mo, illustrated $1.50 

“ The book’s heroine Blue Bonnet has the very finest 
kind of wholesome, honest lively girlishness and cannot 
but make friends with every one who meets to through 
th,e book as medium.” — Chicago Inter-Ocean. 

BLUE BONNET’S RANCH PARTY 

A Sequel to “A Texas Blue Bonnet.” By Caroline 
Elliott Jacobs and Edyth Ellerbeck Read. 

12mo, illustrated $1.50 

The new story begins where the first volume leaves off 
and takes Blue Bonnet and the “We Are Seven Club ” 
to the ranch in Texas. The tables are completely turned: 
Blue Bonnet is here in her natural element, while her 
friends from Woodford have to learn the customs and 
traditions of another world. 

THE GIRLS OF FRIENDLY TERRACE 

Or, Peggy Raymond’s Success. By Harriet Lum- 
Mis Smith. 

12mo, illustrated $1.50 

This is a book that will gladden the hearts of many 
girl readers because of its charming air of comradeship 
and reality. It is a very interesting group of girls who 
live on Friendly Terrace and their good times and other 
times are graphically related by the author, who shows 
a sympathetic knowledge of girl character. 

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BOOKS FOR YOUNG PEOPLE 


PEGGY RAYMOND’S VACATION; Or, Friendly 

Terrace Transplanted. 

A Sequel to “ The Girls of Friendly Terrace.” By 

Harriet Lummis Smith. 

Library 12mo, cloth decorative, illustrated . $1.50 

Readers who made the acquaintance of Peggy Ray- 
mond and her bevy of girl chums in “ The Girls of Friendly 
Terrace ” will be glad to continue the acquaintance of 
these attractive young folks. 

Several new characters are introduced, and one at least 
will prove a not unworthy rival of the favorites among 
the Terrace girls. 

THE HADLEY HALL SERIES 

By LOUISE M. BREITBNBACH 

Each, library 12mo, doth decorative, illustrated . $1.50 

ALMA AT HADLEY HALL 

“ Miss Breitenbach is to be congratulated on having 
written such an appealing book for girls, and the girls 
are to be congratulated on having the privilege of reading 
it.” — The Detroit Free Press. 

ALMA'S SOPHOMORE YEAR 

“ The characters are strongly drawn with a life-like 
realism, the incidents are well and progressively se- 
quenced, and the action is so well timed that the interest 
never slackens.” — Boston Ideas. 


THE SUNBRIDGE GIRLS AT SIX STAR 

RANCH. By Eleanor Stuart. 

Library 12mo, cloth decorative, illustrated . $1.50 

Any girl of any age who is fond of outdoor life will 
appreciate this fascinating tale of Genevieve Hartley’s 
summer vacation house-party bn a Texas ranch. Gene- 
vieve and her friends are real girls, the kind that one 
would like to have in one’s own home, and there are a 
couple of manly boys introduced. 

A— 5 


L. C. PAGE COMPANY'S 


BEAUTIFUL JOE'S PARADISE; Or, The Island 
OF Brotherly Love. A Sequel to “ Beautiful Joe.” 
By Marshall Saunders, author of “ Beautiful Joe.” 
One vol., library 12mo, cloth illustrated . . $1.50 

“ This book revives the spirit of ‘ Beautiful Joe ’ capi- 
tally. It is fairly riotous with fun, and is about as unusual 
as anything in the animal book line that has seen the 
light.” — Philadelphia Item. 

'TILDA JANE. By Marshall Saunders. 

One vol., 12mo, fully illustrated, cloth decorative, $1.50 
“ It is one of those exquisitely simple and truthful books 
that win and charm the reader, and I did not put it down 
until I had finished it — honest ! And I am sure that every 
one, young or old, who reads will be proud and happy to 
make the acquaintance of the delicious waif. 

“ I cannot think of any better book for children than 
this. I commend it unreservedly.” — Cyras T. Brady. 
'TILDA JANE'S ORPHANS. A Sequel to “ 'Tilda 
•Jane.” By Marshall Saunders. 

One vol., 12mo, fully illustrated, cloth decorative, $1.50 
'Tilda Jane is the same original, delightful girl, and as 
fond of her animal pets as ever. 

“ There is so much to this story that it is almost a novel 
— in fact it is better than many novels, although written 
for only young people. Compared with much of to-day's 
juveniles it is quite a superior book.” — Chicago Tribune. 

THE STORY OF THE GRAVELYS. By 

Marshall Saunders, author of “Beautiful Joe's 
Paradise,” “ 'Tilda Jane,” etc. 

Library 12mo, cloth decorative. Illustrated by E. B. 

Barry $1.50 

Here we have the haps and mishaps, the trials and 
triumphs, of a delightful New England family. 

PUSSY BLACK - FACE. By Marshall Saunders, 
author of “ 'Tilda Jane,” “ 'Tilda Jane's Orphans,” etc. 
Library 12mo, cloth decorative, illustrated . $1.50 

This is a delightful little story of animal life, written 
in this author's best vein, dealing especially with Pussy 
Black-Face, a little Beacon Street (Boston) kitten, who is 
the narrator. 

A— 6 


BOOKS FOR YOUNG PEOPLE 


FAMOUS LEADERS SERIES 

By CHARLES H. L. JOHNSTON 
Each, large 12mo, cloth decorative, illustrated . $1.50 

FAMOUS CAVALRY LEADERS 

Biographical sketches, with anecdotes and reminiscenses, 
of the heroes of history who were leaders of cavalry. 

“ More of ^ch books should be written, books that 
acquaint young readers with historical personages in a 
pleasant informal way.” — N. Y. Sun. 

FAMOUS INDIAN CHIEFS 

In this book Mr. Johnston gives interesting sketches of 
the Indian braves who have figured with prominence in 
the history of our own land. 

FAMOUS PRIVATEERSMEN AND ADVEN- 
TURERS OF THE SEA 

In this volume Mr. Johnston tells interesting stories 
about the famous sailors of fortune. 

FAMOUS SCOUTS 

“ It is the kind of a book that will have a great fascina- 
tion for boys and young men and while it entertains them 
it will also present valuable information in regard to those 
who have left their impress upon the history of the country. 
— The New London Day. 

FAMOUS FRONTIERSMEN AND HEROES 
OF THE BORDER 

This book is devoted to a description of the adventur- 
ous lives and stirring e^eriences of many pioneer heroes 
who were prominently identified with the opening of the 
great west. 


RALPH SOMERBY AT PANAMA 

By Francis Raleigh. 

Large 12mo, cloth decorative, illustrated . ^ $1.50 

Real buccaneers who overran the Spanish main, and 
adventurers who figured prominently in the sack of 
Panama, all enter into the life of Ralph Somerby, a young 
English lad, on his way to the colony in Jamaica. After 
a year of wandering and adventure he covers the route of 
the present Panama Canal. 

A— 7 


Z. C. PAGE <Sr* COMPANY'S 


THE DOCTOR’S LITTLE GIRL 

By Marion Ames Taggart. 

One vol., library 12mo, illustrated . . . $1.50 

A thoroughly enjoyable tale of a little girl and her com- 
rade father, written in a delightful vein of sympathetic 
comprehension of the child’s point of view. 

“ The characters are strongly drawn with a life-like real- 
ism, the incidents are well and progressively sequenced, 
and the action is so well timed that the interest never 
slackens.” — Boston Ideas. 

SWEET NANCY 

The Further Adventures of the Doctor’s Little 
Girl. By Marion Ames Taggart. 

One vol., library 12mo, illustrated . . . $1.50 

In the new book, the author tells how Nancy becomes 
in fact “ the doctor’s assistant,” and continues to shed 
happiness around her. 

NANCY, THE DOCTOR’S LITTLE PART- 
NER 

By Marion Ames Taggart. 

One vol., library 12mo, illustrated . . . $1.50 

In Nancy Porter, Miss Taggart has created one of the 
most lovable child characters in recent years. In the 
new story she is the same bright and cheerful little maid. 

NANCY PORTER’S OPPORTUNITY 

By Marion Ames Taggart. 

One vol., library 12mo, illustrated . . . $1.50 

Already as the “ doctor’s partner ” Nancy Porter has 
won the affection of her readers, and in the same lovable 
manner she continues in the new book to press the key- 
notes of optimism and good-will. 

BORN TO THE BLUE 

By Florence Kimball Russel. 

12mo, cloth decorative, illustrated . . . $1.25 

The atmosphere of army life on the plains breathes on 
every page of this delightful tale. The boy is the son of a 
captain of U. S. cavalry stationed at a frontier post in the 
days when our regulars earned the gratitude of a nation. 
A— 8 







t J. 



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